Tuesday, March 28, 2017

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.



[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.

Tuesday, March 21, 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

 

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

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 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.



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

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

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
Arkansas
Archdiocese of Mobile
Fort St. Philippe
1744, 1761-1765
California
Sacremento
St. Joseph's Catholic Cemetery, Woodland, Yolo County
1883-1939
Colorado
Archdiocese of Denver
St Mary's Catholic Parish, Littleton
1915-1985
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
Illinois
Archdiocese of Chicago
City of Chicago and surrounding area
1833-1925
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
Indiana

Vincennes
1741-1786
Indiana
Rockford
St. Michael's Parish, Daviess County
1887-1916
Indiana
Rockford
St. Michael's Parish, Daviess County
1887-1916
Indiana

St. Peter's Parish, Montgomery County
1853-1881
Louisiana
Archdiocese of New Orleans
Various Parishes
1772-1818

Louisiana
Archdiocese of New Orleans
Various Parishes
1751-1799
Louisiana

St. Gabriel
1753-1759
Massachusetts
Archdiocese of Boston
Various Parishes
1789-1900
Maine

Frenchville
Van Buren
1843-1943
1838-1900
Maine

Ste. Luce, Frenchville, Aroostook County
1843-1860
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
Missouri

St. Ferdinand, Florissant
Old Cathedral, St. Louis
1790-1954
1766-1954
Missouri

St. Peter's Parish, Kirkwood
1838-1851
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
New Jersey
Archdiocese of Newark
St. John the Baptist Parish, Jersey City
1884-1928
New York
Brooklyn
Our Lady of Sorrow Parish, Bushwick
St. Leonards of Port Maurice, Bushwick
Most Holy Trinity, Williamsburg
1842-1978
New York
Brooklyn
1837-1900
Ancestry: here & here (T/I)
New York
Buffalo
Various Parishes++
19th & 20th Centuries

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
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
Pennsylvania
Archdiocese
of Philadelphia
All Parishes
 18th-20th centuries
Findmypast (S/I) Baptisms / Marriages / Registers Browse
Pennsylvania

Fort Duquesne, Pittsburgh
1754-1756
Texas
Diocese of Austin
St. Mary's of the Immaculate Conception, Austin
1853-1875
Wisconsin

St. Francis Xavier, Green Bay
Prairie-du-Chien
1823-1826

1829

* 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.