My mother was 3yrs old and my father was 7 when they moved from sogona and millers passage. We went back for a trip and visited both places many years ago. Most of the old houses were standing including the church on sogona. Beautiful slice of nfld history.
One of the reasons Fr. (later Bishop) O'Reilly did this was to introduce "new blood" into the communities due to intermarriages. And on another note, walking from Lourdes to Stephenville for work was tough; but I remember my mother speaking of how the men from the Port-au-Port Pennisula walked to Corner Brook via the railway line because they had heard of work. There was quite a number of them, and when they got there learned there was no work to be had. On the return journey, my grandmother who had a little store at Howards (around SpruceBrook/Gallants area) cleaned out her store feeding them for free. Those were indeed hard times!
