My great-great (I think that’s the right number of greats) grandmother was one of these—apparently (as I remember the story), her mother and sisters had emigrated to Australia from Ireland, and g+grandma was going to follow them sometime later…but when she finally made it to the port, it turned out the next ship leaving for Australia wouldn’t be available for some weeks, and she didn’t have the resources to wait around that long. But there was a ship going to New York shortly, so…she emigrated to America instead. Never heard from the rest of her family again.