This paper will utilize a database of over 170 women, focusing on the first generation of women who immigrated to Vancouver Island and Saltspring Island during the period of 1858-1870. It will examine their lives in the United States prior to their arrival in British Columbia. It will look at the first phase of immigration from the Eastern Seaboard to California, life in California and the plans to go to Vancouver Island, providing details about the composition and expectations of this immigrant community including: slave or free origins, birth places, the lives and the occupation\careers of both women and their spouses. Tables and maps will illustrate the data. [For more information, contact the presenter at seflett@moody.bc.ca].