I'm trying to migrate photos from an early 2009 iMac that is running 10.11.6

Connect the systems together or use an external drive formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) and drag the desired files to the new computer

And note that this has nothing to do with Photos for Mac - it is simply a general "how to use my Mac" question

LN

Is your new iMac running High Sierra?

. I ran the Migration program

How did you migrate? Did you use the setup assistant, when the new Mac started up the first time and connected the old Mac or a Time Machine backup? Or did you first set up the new Mac and did then run the Migration Assistant?

You will have less problems with wrong file ownerships and permissions, if you transfer the content immediately, before you create any user account on a new Mac and use the setup assistant when prompted the first time to transfer documents and data.

and none of my number files, page file nor any of my photos transfer to my new iMac.

Did the documents not transfer, or can't you open them on your new Mac?

have you checked, if the documents and your photo libraries have been transferred to a different user account on your Mac? Migration assistant cannot restore a user account to the user account you are using to run the Migration assistant. It will create a second user account.

Larry, the community hosts moved the question here. I found the question in a different discussion and asked for for a relocation outside the Photos Forum, but the hosts relocated it here, probably because the question is also about missing photos.

Should I try running the migration assistant again

That would probably give the same result, unless you change the selection of items to be restored.

Did you connect your old Mac, when you ran Migration Assistent or a Time Machine drive?

There weren't any photos when I opened the photo program. There weren't any files when I opened Numbers and Pages. Opened Documents with Finder and there are NONE there.

Have you been using iCloud Drive and iCloud Photo Library with your old Mac? Are your iCloud preferences the same on your new Mac?

You can either connect your old Mac again in target disk mode and copy the files and folders over, or use your network. If you connect to your old Mac over the network (Finder > Go > Connect to Server) assign into your old user account, you can drag and drop all documents from the Documents folder on your Mac and your Photos Library from the Pictures folder to your new Mac.

Or use an external drive, connect it the old Mac, copy all files and folders from your Home folder to the drive, then connect the drive to the new Mac and copy them to the corresponding folders on the new Mac.

. Have not been using iCloud Photo library. Have 28,000 + pics on the old Mac

You should be finding your Photos Library in the Pictures folder. The Finder does not show the Pictures folder in the sidebar, unless you enable it to show.

If you have been using iCloud Drive on the old Mac, the Pages and the Numbers files may be on iCloud Drive and not in your Documents folder.