Descendants of 1,800 Sussex people who went in search of a new life in Canada in the 19th Century will return to their roots this month.

They will be guests of honour at a ceremony to mark the end of a ten-year research project into an emigration scheme which operated in the county between 1832 and 1837.

The unique social experiment aimed to give people the chance of a better life at a time when England had a surplus of labour.

The Petworth Emigration Committee helped send 1,800 men and women who faced a life of poverty to Canada.

The scheme was backed by the third Earl of Egremont, owner of the Petworth estate, but the people who volunteered for it came from all over East and West Sussex.

Two major books about the scheme are to be launched after a research project at the University of Sussex.

The migrants' descendants will attend the books' launch on October 28.

A public exhibition will run at East Sussex Record Office from October 31 to November 30 and at Brighton Local History Library from December 1 to January 1.