What an interesting story. I suppose many of us have relatives who went to the New World. These are some of mine -

The man second from the left was W A Dunlap, an uncle of my grandmother who emigrated from Northern Ireland in the 1880's and who was a prominent mortician in Philadelphia and also, I believe, a member of the US Senate and a leading light in the Orange Order of America. Another brother decided not to go and as a 12 year old stayed behind in Greenock while the rest of his family left for America. He made a living first with a handcart, then horse and cart and finished up owning a bus company - Dunlop's buses.