U.S. Census Series: Ward 2, St. Louis, Missouri 1860

One of the recurring features of this blog is the U.S. Census Series, where I highlight the rare examples of Irish place of birth/origin recorded on census documents. To date, seven locations have been explored and they can be accessed at the Census Series page. This post is about Ward 2, St. Louis, Missouri in the 1860 U.S. Federal Census.

St. Louis, Missouri 1871 Ward Map. Click to enlarge.[1]

We can be thankful to census enumerator Edward Thierry for going beyond the norm when gathering answers to the question 'Place of Birth, Naming the State, Territory or Country.' In total, he recorded an Irish county or place of birth for approximately 323 people. There were also a few other very interesting efforts by him to document place of birth, such as 'County Neals, Ireland,' 'Not Ascertained, Ireland' and 'Born at Sea, Ireland.' He collected this census information between 1 June and 31 July of that year.

County	Approx. No. of Entries
Tipperary	55 (incl. 3 Thurles, 1 Chermill [?], 2 Littleton)
Cork	29 (incl. 3 Bandon, 2 City, 2 Bantry)
Cavan	29
Wexford	21
Dublin	19
Limerick	17
Mayo	17
Meath	15 (incl. 2 Oldcastle)
Galway	14 (incl. 1 Hedford)
Kilkenny	11
Tyrone	10
Roscommon	9
Waterford	9
Westmeath	7
Kerry	6 (incl. 1 Kenmare)
Kildare	6
Monaghan	6
Clare	4
Carlow	4
Derry	4 (incl. 2 'Londy' possibly Londonderry)
Down	4 (incl. 1 Newry)
Leitrim	4
Sligo	4
Offaly	3 (incl. 1 'Fardown' [?])
Antrim	3 (3 Belfast)
Fermanagh	3
Wicklow	3
Armagh	2
Donegal	2
Laois	1
Longford	1
Louth	1
County	323
Co Neals, Ireland	2
Born at Sea, Ireland	1
Portage, Ireland	1
Co City, Ireland	1
Co Casey, Ireland	1
Not ascertained, Ireland	1
Not known, Ireland	1
Other	8
Final Total	331

  

He did not record the county of birth of every Irish born person he encountered, but we get a flavor of the Irish county makeup of the 2nd Ward of St. Louis. Tipperary and Cork feature the most, with counties Cavan, Dublin, Wexford, Limerick and Mayo all heavily featured. At least one person from every county in Ireland had their place of birth recorded.

You can browse all 356 pages of the 2nd Ward and also perform the usual name search.

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[1] Tracey, J. L. Map Of The City Of St. Louis For Tracy's Guide To Missouri. 1871. Available online at David Rumsey Maps           http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~215834~5502559:Missouri-And-St--Louis?sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No?: accessed 23 May 2016.