From Roscommon to Texas, MD

Assisted emigration is a feature of 19th century migration from Ireland to the United States and Canada. The owners of the estates in Ireland from which the emigrants left varied, with one example begin 'Crown estates,' those ultimately owned by the British Monarch. They were dotted around Ireland and one such estate was Ballykilcline in Kilglass Civil Parish, County Roscommon.

Beginning in 1847, 366 people left the estate on ships that sailed from Liverpool to New York City.[1] The assisted emigrants sailed on the Roscius, Metoka, Jane Classon, Creole, Channing, and Laconic. The last of these ships left Liverpool on 25 April 1848.[2] The small area of Texas, Baltimore County, Maryland was where many of these arrivals ended up. A limestone quarry began there in the years before 1847 and the Balykilcline assisted emigrants moved there for employment.

The complete list of emigrants from Ballykilcline is available in Eilish Ellis' Emigrants from Ireland, 1847-1852: State-aided emigration schemes from crown estates in Ireland. A detailed website about the assisted emigrants is also available to review. Archaeological excavations of the Texas area were due to be carried out in the mid-2000s and an overview of this is available on the website of the Center for Heritage Resource Studies, University of Maryland.

I first learned about this migration on the Irish Genealogical Society International blog.

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[1] Ellis, Eilish. Emigrants from Ireland, 1847-1852 : state-aided emigration schemes from crown estates in Ireland. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co. 1993. p.12.

[2] 'The Emigrant Ships,' The Story of Ballykilcline, (http://www. ballykilcline.com) accessed 25 March 2017.

Ulster Historical Foundation U.S. Tour Webinars

The Ulster Historical Foundation annual tour of the United States finishes today in Little Rock, Arkansas. Last week, they visited Fountaindale, Illinois, and the Fountaindale Public Library has made all of their presentations available to view on Youtube and their Fountaindale Public Library Genealogy & Research blog.

Of particular interest to this blog are the presentations:

Emigration from Ireland to North America: An Overview



Emigration from Ireland to North America: Strategies for Researching Emigrant Ancestors

 

From Ulster to Philadelphia

An Alphabetical Index of Ulster Emigration to Philadelphia, 1803-1850 dates from the early 1990s and was compiled by Pennsylvanian Raymond D. Adams. The specific and succinct nature of the title quickly tells the genealogist what this publication should be used for. There are entries for almost 2,000 individuals who arrived into Philadelphia in the first half of the 19th century. Some combination of name, age, family members that traveled with them, ship, year of arrival, port of embarkation and address in Ireland is provided for each person. The address is typically a townland.

The main disadvantage of this book is that the primary sources from where the information came from is only hinted at - "Customs Lists and passenger Lists contained in the National Archives [presumably of the United States], existing passenger lists recorded voluntarily by ship's masters of the Cunard and Cooke shipping lines, and civil parish emigration lists retained by the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland."[1] Without clear citations, you still have to try and track down the original documentation that provided the information so as to help prove the Philadelphian immigrant's Irish place of origin.

Based on this description of sources and the specific years of arrival listed in the book, I'd suggest following up with Brian Mitchell's books to learn more about where the information comes from.

Mitchell, Brian. Irish Emigration Lists, 1833-1839 - Lists of Emigrants Extracted from the OrdnanceSurvey Memoirs for Counties Londonderry and Antrim. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company. 2007.

Mitchell, Brian. Irish Passenger Lists, 1847-1871 - Lists of Passengers Sailing from Londonderry to America on Ships of the J. & J. Cooke Line and the McCorkell Line. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company. 2001.

Mitchell, Brian. Irish Passenger Lists, 1803-1806 - Lists of Passengers Sailing from Ireland to America. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company. 1995.

An Alphabetical Index....is also available as a searchable database on Ancestry.

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[1] Adams, Raymond D. An Alphabetical Index to Ulster Emigration to Philadelphia, 1803-1850. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company. 1992. p. vii.

Online U.S. Catholic Parish Registers 2017 List

In 2015 I started a yearly list of what Roman Catholic parish registers I found online in various formats. There has been two major announcements in relation to the availability of such records since the last list in August 2016. The New England Historic Genealogical Society has partnered with the Archdiocese of Boston to eventually digitize records from all of their parishes up to the turn of the 20th century. Findmypast recently placed the registers of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia online and plan to add registers from other dioceses in the future. I've also added entries for parishes from other states such as Kentucky and upstate New York. New additions are in bold in the table.

Access and Format Key

S - Scanned

I - Indexed

NI - Not Indexed

T - Transcriptions

State	Diocese	Region/Parishes Covered	Years	Access & Format
Alabama	Archdiocese of Mobile	Mobile	1704-1764	Ancestry (Drouin Collection)
Arkansas	Archdiocese of Mobile	Fort St. Philippe	1744, 1761-1765	Ancestry (Drouin Collection)
California	Sacremento	St. Joseph's Catholic Cemetery, Woodland, Yolo County	1883-1939	Familysearch Books (S) *
Colorado	Archdiocese of Denver	St Mary's Catholic Parish, Littleton	1915-1985	Familysearch Books (S) **
Delaware	Wilmington	Delaware and Eastern Shore Maryland on Delmarva Peninsula	1795-1925	Lalley.com (S/NI)
Kentucky		Sacred Heart Parish, St. Vincent	c.1833 - c.1914	Familysearch Books (T)
Illinois	Archdiocese of Chicago	City of Chicago and surrounding area	1833-1925	Familysearch (S/I)
Illinois	Belleville	South East Ohio / County map of parishes	1729-1956	Familysearch (S/NI)
Illinois		Kaskaskia (Caskakias), Prairie du Rocher, Fort de Chartres	1695-1813, 1761-1799, 1721-1765	Ancestry (Drouin Collection)
Indiana		Vincennes	1741-1786	Ancestry (Drouin Collection)
Indiana	Rockford	St. Michael's Parish, Daviess County	1887-1916	Archive.org (S)
Indiana	Rockford	St. Michael's Parish, Daviess County	1887-1916	Familysearch Books (S)**
Indiana		St. Peter's Parish, Montgomery County	1853-1881	Archive.org (S)
Louisiana	Archdiocese of New Orleans	Various Parishes	1772-1818	Archdiocese of New Orleans Archives (S)+
Louisiana	Archdiocese of New Orleans	Various Parishes	1751-1799	Archdiocese of New Orleans Archives (T)+
Louisiana		St. Gabriel	1753-1759	Ancestry (Drouin Collection)
Massachusetts	Archdiocese of Boston	Various Parishes	1789-1900	American Ancestors (S)
Maine		Frenchville Van Buren	1843-1943 1838-1900	Ancestry (Drouin Collection)
Maine		Ste. Luce, Frenchville, Aroostook County	1843-1860	Upper Saint John River Valley
Maryland	Wilmington	Delaware and Eastern Shore Maryland on Delmarva Peninsula	1795-1925	Lalley.com (S/NI)
Michigan		St. Anne, Detroit Various others, Detroit St. Anne, Mackinac (Makinac) County Fort Français, Berrien County	1704-1943 1754-1784 1695-1828 1720-1733	Ancestry (Drouin Collection)
Missouri		St. Ferdinand, Florissant Old Cathedral, St. Louis	1790-1954 1766-1954	Ancestry (Drouin Collection)
Missouri		St. Peter's Parish, Kirkwood	1838-1851	St Louis Genealogical Society (T/I)
New Jersey	Archdiocese of Newark	St. Peter's Parish, Belville Immaculate Conception Parish, Montclair	1839-1899	NYC Nuts (T/I)
New Jersey	Archdiocese of Newark	Various Parishes	19th Century	Familysearch (T/I)***
New Jersey	Archdiocese of Newark	St Mary Star of the Sea Parish, Beyonne	1884-1984	Hudson County Gen Soc (T)
New Jersey	Archdiocese of Newark	St. John the Baptist Parish, Jersey City	1884-1928	Familysearch (S)
New York	Brooklyn	Our Lady of Sorrow Parish, Bushwick St. Leonards of Port Maurice, Bushwick Most Holy Trinity, Williamsburg	1842-1978	German Genealogy Group (T/I)
New York	Brooklyn	St Paul's Parish	1837-1900	Ancestry: here & here (T/I)
New York	Buffalo	Various Parishes++	19th & 20th Centuries	Familysearch Catalog (S/I/T) Familysearch  (T)
New York		Brasher Falls St. Joseph, Cooperville Chazy Fort Covington Fort Frederick, Albany Hogansburg Malone Massena	1843-1946 1843-1948 1902-1907 1843-1946 1732-1760 1843-1946 1843-1946 1843-1946	Ancestry (Drouin Collection)
Ohio	Toledo	North west Ohio	1796-2004	Familysearch (S/NI) Ancestry (S/NI)
Pennsylvania	Archdiocese of Philadelphia	Philadelphia and south east Pennsylvania	18th & 19th Century	Hathi Trust (S/T)
Pennsylvania	Archdiocese of Philadelphia	All Parishes	18th-20th centuries	Findmypast (S/I) Baptisms / Marriages / Registers Browse
Pennsylvania		Fort Duquesne, Pittsburgh	1754-1756	Archive.org
Texas	Diocese of Austin	St. Mary's of the Immaculate Conception, Austin	1853-1875	Austin Genealogical Society (T)
Wisconsin		St. Francis Xavier, Green Bay Prairie-du-Chien	1823-1826 1829	Ancestry (Drouin Collection)

* Search for: "Burial register, St. Joseph's Catholic Cemetery, Woodland, Yolo Co., California"

** Search for: " St. Mary's Catholic Church, 1915-1985, of Littleton Colorado"

*** Records are contained within the database New Jersey, Births and Christenings, 1660-1980

**** Search for: "Register of St. Michael Catholic Church, Daviess County, Indiana"

+ Thanks to Nicole W. Miller (@nicolewmiller) for bringing these to my attention

++ Microfilms from parishes in the Diocese of Buffalo are available at the Family History Library. So far, some of these microfilms have been scanned and others have been indexed. You can access the scans and indexes via the Familysearch Catalog. Records that have been indexed are also available via the database New York Births and Christenings, 1640-1962, which is available on Familysearch.