Beginning in the 1840s, thousands of Irish immigrants found
jobs all over the eastern half of the United States building railroads.
Researching these men and their families can be difficult due to the transient
nature of their lives, lack of employment records, and the inherent dangers of
the job resulting in high mortality rates. An excellent website, Clann Mór - The Blur Ridge Railway Project, is dedicated to researching the African-American
slaves and Irish immigrants who toiled on the construction of one small part of
the vast American railroad system - the Blue Ridge Railroad in central Virginia
in the 1850s.
The most useful part
of the website for genealogist is the Research section. Amongst other
interesting articles and pieces of research, first hand accounts from newspapers
and diaries are provided from the time of construction, including an interesting
yet typically nativist account from a young lady passing through the area:[1]
"One
of the poor men who work on the railroad had made a clearing among the trees in
order to plant his
potatoes. There are a great many Irish
cabins on each side of the mountains, which reminded
me of descriptions I have read of the manner of living of the lowest class in
Ireland. They are mere
hovels, & most of them have one or two barrels on the top of the chimney,
but in some of them, we saw
muslin curtains, a strange mixture of dirt & finery. The people are real Irish - wretched, miserable &
dirty in appearance, but they hold on to Irish fun & Irish potatoes, as well as Irish tempers. Father called to a man who was at the door of one of the cabins & told him he had often seen double barreled guns
but had never before heard of double barreled chimnies [sic],
and he seemed very much pleased."
The crowning achievement of the website creators is the
fantastic Master List of Irish Workers and Slaves that those behind the website have
created. Information for over 2,000 workers and their families is provided
and was drawn from census, vital, newspaper and employment records. Some of
the entries are vividly real: Morris Griffin died on 21 January 1851 with the
notation remarking - "Irish blown up in large tunnell."[2]
Irish counties of origin are also provided for some of the workers as the
creators of the master list utilized the Information Wanted Ads in the Boston
Pilot newspaper as well as local records.
[1] Clannmhor.org.
Clann
Mhór - First Hand Accounts. Date Unknown.
http://www.clannmhor.org/clannmhor/First_Hand_Accounts.html : accessed 1
October 2015. Original at: Diary of Mary Jane Boggs Holladay [manuscript]
1851-61. Call numbers MSS 6436-h. The Albert and Shirley Small Special
Collections Library. University of Virginia.
[2] Clannmhor.org.
Clann
Mhór Master List of Irish Workers and Slaves. January 2013. Available
online at
http://www.clannmhor.org/clannmhor/MasterList_files/Master%20List%20Jan%20Sht%201.pdf:
accessed 1 October 2015
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