New York State Naturalizations 1802 - 1814

Thomas Addis Emmet was a lawyer who was heavily involved in the United Irishmen organization in the 1790s. Born in Cork, he was arrested on the eve of the 1798 rebellion and eventually settled in New York City, where he lived out the remainder of his days. He died there in 1827.[1] His grandson, Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet, amassed a considerable collection of important documents and the collection was donated to the New York Public Library in 1896.[2]  

One of those documents is a list of immigrants naturalized in New York State between 1802 and 1814. Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet was known for his pro-Irish independence sympathies and the vast majority of the 115 names on the list are for men from Ireland. Importantly, the Irish county of birth is provided for almost every entry.

Early New York Naturalizations

The names were transcribed and published in a 1963 edition of the Bulletin of The New York Public Library.[3] This edition of the bulletin was digtized by Internet Archive and is freely available online. Click here for access.

The Emmet Collection was digitized by the New York Public Library and is available to view here.

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[1] Thomas Addis Emmet, born 1764, died 1827 in New York City, buried Saint Mark's Church in the Bowery, New York, New York, memorial number 6813864; digital image, Find A Grave (http;//www.findagrave.com), accessed 24 September 2016.

[2] Thomas Addis Emmet collection, Archives and Manuscripts; The New York Public Library (http://archives.nypl.org), accessed 24 September 2016.

[3] Wolfe, Richard J. Early New York Naturalization Records in the Emmet Collection With a List of Aliens Naturalized in New York 1802-1814, Bulletin of the New York Public Library, Volume 67, Number 4, April 1963, pp. 211-217; accessed Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/earlynewyorknatu00wolf), 24 September 2016.

Moughty's Research Trips To Ireland

Florida based genealogist Donna Moughty has organized research trips to Ireland for the last number of years. On the trips, she leads and mentors groups of people who want to do research in the main repositories on the island. These trips usually occur in October and she provides an excellent blog commentary about her research exploits. Her posts showcase the fast paced nature of these trips, mixed with the will it takes to fit in as much research as possible in two weeks; one week is in Belfast and the other in Dublin.

The 2014 trip visited all the major repositories: Public Records Office of Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Registry of Deeds, National Library of Ireland, National Archives of Ireland, Valuation Office, Registry of Deeds, and the Back To Our Past genealogy conference. She has just recently returned and you can read all the posts, starting here.

You can also read about the 2013 and 2012 trips. Are you thinking of taking a research trip to Ireland? You could do worse than inquire about here 2015 trip!

Irish Emigration Database On DIPPAM IV: Immigrant Ship Information

Read the first parts of this series by clicking part 1, part 2 & part 3, or scroll down if on the homepage.

To review: DIPPAM (Documenting Ireland: People, Parliament, and Migration) is an online virtual archive of documents and sources relating to the history of Ireland, and its migration experience from the late 18th to the 20th centuries. In this series I am focusing on one part of DIPPAM, the Irish Emigration Database (IED).

Beginning February 1756, information from newspapers about ships that sailed to North America is available to consult in the IED. The vast majority of entries are made up of transcriptions of short articles that focus on the journey of the ship. Information usually includes the name of the ship, port of embarkation, and where the ship is going to/port of arrival. The date of departure can be worked out from the date of the newspaper article. Lengthier articles usually mean that something out of the ordinary happened, such as the ship getting into difficulty at sea.

If you have been able to find the ship on which you Irish ancestor(s) arrived in North America, then you might be able to find more information from a simple name search for the ship. For example, this article discuses those about to embark on the Charles Kerr in 1838. The ship left from Limerick port and the majority of passenger were from County Clare.[1]

The vast majority of passenger lists from before 1892 for those traveling to North America do not give a place of origin beyond, say, Ireland. Searching for the name of your ancestors ship in the IED is one tool that can be used to potentially solve this problem.

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[1] DIPPAM. Emigrants from Clare, Limerick and Tipperary.  http://www.dippam.ac.uk/ied/records/28216: accessed 20 August 2014. Document ID 9310379. Originally from The Belfast News Letter, August 24th, 1838.

Irish Emigration Database On DIPPAM III: Named Relationships

Read the first parts of this series by clicking part 1 & part 2, or scroll down if on the homepage.

To review: DIPPAM (Documenting Ireland: People, Parliament, and Migration) is an online virtual archive of documents and sources relating to the history of Ireland, and its migration experience from the late 18th to the 20th centuries. In this series I am focusing on one part of DIPPAM, the Irish Emigration Database (IED).

The writing of letters was an important way for families to keep in touch when they lived on opposite sides of the Atlantic ocean. Those who were literate could avail of the opportunity and those who were illiterate might engage the services of someone who could read and write. The IED contains transcriptions of hundreds of such trans-Atlantic letters.

When doing research on Irish immigrants, one might presume that if their ancestors were from a low socio-economic status, then they could not write and this might not be an avenue of research worth exploring. However, due to chain migration in Ireland, and Irish people from the same part of Ireland settling in the same part of the U.S., information in such letters can often go beyond the direct family members.

For example, this letter was written by William Heatley to his sister, Mary, in 1851.[1] William was living in Wexford Landing, Iowa, and wrote to his sister telling all about setting up in the area. In passing, he twice mentions a Fr. Hore, presumably a Catholic priest. Further research shows that Fr. Hore lead a substantial delegation of Catholics from Wexford, Ireland to America in the early 1850s.[2] Many of them traveled on the Ticonderoga to New Orleans.[3] They then sailed up the Mississippi until they found their new land in Allamakee county, Iowa. A transcribed listing of passengers shows a number of Heatleys in the traveling party, along with other people mentioned in the letter, such as Christina (presumably Christine Heatley on the passenger listing), Charles Redmond, and Mary Fennell.[4]

This one letter, tied in with local history research in Iowa and passenger list information from the port of New Orleans, instantly opens up a broad range of research possibilities for both descendants of the letter writer and those who settled in the new Wexford colony.

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[1] DIPPAM. William Heatley, [Iowa?] to Mary Quinnn, Wicklow.  http://www.dippam.ac.uk/ied/records/45271: accessed 19 August 2014. Document ID 9809171. Donated by Jim Rees, original at Ulster-American Folk Park.

[2] Hancock, Ellery M. Past and Present of Allamakee County, Iowa. Chicago: SJ Clarke Publishing. 1913. p.266.

[3] Murphy, Hillary. From Wexford Ireland to Wexford Iowa. Irish Family History. 1987. Vol. 3. Extracts available online at http://www.celticcousins.net/irishiniowa/wexfordia.htm: accessed 19 August 2014.

[4] Rees, Jim. A Farewell to Famine. Arklow: Arklow Enterprise Center. 1994. Extracts available online at http://www.celticcousins.net/irishiniowa/wexfordia.htm: accessed 19 August 2014.

Irish Emigration Database On DIPPAM II: Place Of Origin Information

Read part one of this series by clicking here, or scroll down if on the homepage.

To review: DIPPAM (Documenting Ireland: People, Parliament, and Migration) is an online virtual archive of documents and sources relating to the history of Ireland, and its migration experience from the late 18th to the 20th centuries. In this series I am focusing on one part of DIPPAM, the Irish Emigration Database (IED).

Examples of Irish place of origin information can be found in many types of documents on the IED, across the 18th and 19th centuries.  As all the information in the IED has been transcribed, a researcher can quickly enter the names and places that are of interest to their research. Many of the transcriptions contain a modern fixed spelling of  a word in parenthesis beside the original, or a full spelling of an abbreviation, for example Pensylvania [Pennsylvania?][1] and Anthony McClean, near Letter Kenny,[Letterkenny,?] Co. Don.[Donegal?][2]. This can help with searching the database, but as with all transcribed records, caution should be taken and, if possible, the original viewed to get all possible information from the document.

Screen shot of a entry in the DIPPAM Irish Emigration Database

Three examples, from across the centuries show the potential in this database. Firstly, this newspaper article from 1762 discusses the findings of a group of men who inspected land in Nova Scotia, Canada. Seventeen Irish immigrants are listed, along with where they are from in Donegal, Antrim, and Derry/Londonderry.[3]Another example is the reporting of deaths of Irish emigrants, of which there are hundreds. In this short notice, the death of a Fermanagh man in Canada in 1835 is reported in the local newspaper in Ireland.[4] Lastly, 1897 probate information for a Tipperary woman who died in California mentions where she came from in the county and the name of her sister.[5]

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[1] DIPPAM. Declaration of Committee of Immigrants to Nova Scotia.  http://www.dippam.ac.uk/ied/records/28069: accessed 20 August 2014. Document ID 305015. Originally from The Belfast Newsletter, 11 March, 1762.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] DIPPAM. Death notice of Michael Graham, Monaghan, Upper Canada.  http://www.dippam.ac.uk/ied/records/51766: accessed 20 August 2014. Document ID 9408370. Originally from The Enniskillen Chronicle, Thursday, November 5, 1835.

[5] DIPPAM. Estate and Effects of Mary Treacy.  http://www.dippam.ac.uk/ied/records/53220: accessed 20 August 2014. Document ID 9410121. Originally from Estate and Effects of Mary Treacy at Public Records Office of Northern Ireland.

Irish Emigration Database On DIPPAM I

In a series of posts over the coming weeks, I am going to focus on a part of the DIPPAM (Documenting Ireland: People, Parliament, and Migration) project at Queens University, Belfast. DIPPAM is "an online virtual archive of documents and sources relating to the history of Ireland, and its migration experience from the late 18th to the 20th centuries."[1] It currently consists of three collections: Enhanced British Parliamentary Papers on Ireland (EPPI), the Irish Emigration Database (IED), and Voices of Migration and Return (VMR). The IED will be the focus of these posts.

At the time of writing, there are currently in excess of 33,000 documents in the IED and they can be divided into three broad categories. Documents created by private individuals (e.g. letters, diaries, and journals written by migrants), newspaper material, and official/government papers made up of reports, statistics, and parliamentary debates, all concerning emigration.

Documents in the IED cover the period 1700-1950, with three quarters of the information in the database from the 1820 to 1920 period. Materials from all thirty-two counties in Ireland, the U.S., and Canada are to be found in the database. Overall, the majority of sources supplied to the database creators concern the province of Ulster.[2]

So what kind of genealogical information can be gleaned from all these documents for those researching from this side of the Atlantic? My analysis of this database leads to the answer of Irish place of origin information, named relationships between emigrant and family members in Ireland, and information about ships on which emigrants traveled. I will outline examples of each of these three aspects between now and mid-September.

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[1] Queens University Belfast. DIPPAM - Documenting Documenting Ireland: People, Parliament, and Migration. 2012. http://www.dippam.ac.uk: accessed 16 August 2014

[2] Queens University Belfast. IED Archive Guide. 2012. http://www.dippam.ac.uk: accessed 16 August 2014

Going Beyond US WDYTYA

Who Do You Think You Are (WDYTYA) is the flagship show for genealogy in the United States. In each episode, the ancestry of a celebrity is explored, with prominent narratives from their family history investigated. It first aired in 2010 and began its fifth season last week.

Those in the U.S. who have Irish ancestry might be disappointed with the relative lack of focus on celebrities with Irish ancestry. In the first four seasons there has been 35 episodes. Four participants had their Irish ancestry partly or fully investigated, with three episodes showing research in Ireland. They are:

Chris O'Donnell  season 4, episode 5         Did not do research in Ireland

Rashida Jones season 3, episode 10           Dublin

Rosie O'Donnell season 2, episode 3         Dublin, Kildare, Wicklow, Offaly 

Martin Sheen      season 3, episode 1         Tipperary, Dublin

This is a small return, considering Irish is the largest ancestry grouping in the U.S. after German. Personally, I think there are two reasons for this. Firstly, it can be difficult to find the Irish place of origin. Other celebrities might have been considered, but their Irish place of origin might not have been found. Secondly, the Irish ancestors of some celebrities might not have been involved in something that was considered worthwhile for a TV show. Leaving a poverty stricken rural part of Ireland, living in a densely crowded tenement and dying of tuberculosis at age forty-five is not exactly going to see audiences flocking to watch the show. This could be called 'Cherie Blair syndrome.'

So, where can you get your fix of Irish genealogy on TV? Well, the US WDYTYA has an older British sister, as the show is also aired in the UK. The UK version is actually the original and has been on TV since 2004. The 11th season will begin in August, starting with a special show to mark its upcoming 100th episode. 

The close proximity of Ireland to the UK has seen many Irish celebrities move to the bigger British market and many British-born celebrities have Irish parents, grandparents, and other ancestors. So, the UK version can be a great place to get your fix of Irish genealogy TV. Below, I have YouTube links to some of these episodes:

Graham Norton                Cork, Antrim/Belfast, Wicklow

Dervla Kirwan                  Cork, Dublin

Chris Moyles                      Dublin, Mayo

John Hurt                            Sligo

David Tennant                  Derry/Londonderry

Amanda Redman             Cork/Wexford (parts of the episode)

Nick Hewer                        Antrim/Belfast (could not find video of episode)

The Irish Genealogy News blog reports that the upcoming 11th season of the UK WDYTYA will have two Irish-focused episodes. While you may have know about the UK version of the TV show, you might be surprised to learn that there was also an Irish version of Who Do You Think You Are. It broadcast for two season in 2008 and 2009. I managed to find one episode knocking about on YouTube:

Ryan Tubridy                      Galway/Mayo/Dublin

New Irish Directories Database

City directories are one of the most useful genealogical resources in the Unites States. Did you know that directories, in various formats, have been published in Ireland since the mid-eighteenth century? Many of these publications have come online over the last number of years. However, one stumbling block to utilizing them for research is the fact that they are spread across a large number of free, subscriptions, and fee-paying websites.

Myself and Shane Wilson, a Dublin based family historian and owner of the excellent Irish genealogy website, www.swilson.info, have created the Irish Directories Database. This database will allow you to easily find Irish directories that are currently online.

To access the database, click here.

Poetic Place Of Origin

I came across this fantastically poetic example of an Irish place of origin in an article about indentured servitude of Irish people in Philadelphia.[1] Along with his home town of Belfast, a lot of other valuable genealogical information is included. 

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[1] Clark, Dennis. Babes in Bondage: Indentured Irish Children in Philadelphia in the Nineteenth Century. The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. Vol. 101. No. 4. October 1977. p. 478.

Originally from Geiser, Karl Friedrick. Redemptioners and Indentured Servants in the Colony and Common wealth of Pennsylvania New Haven, CT. 1901. p. 6.

U.S. Census Series: Lincoln, Indiana 1870

Hendricks county is just to the west of the city of Indianapolis in the state of Indiana. By 1870, the city had grown steadily due to the first railroad, which opened in the 1840s. 

In the 1870 census, Lincoln township in Hendricks county reported a population of 1,502. 5.25% of those people are listed as born in Ireland, a total of 79. For all 79, their county or place of origin is listed.[1] 

The breakdown is as follows:

Galway 64

Dublin 5

Down 3

Cork 3

Glinn/Glenn [could possibly refer to Glin, Co. Limerick] 2

Donegal 1

Belfast 1

Lincoln, Indiana census page showing county of origin

You can read through the 38 pages of census returns for Lincoln township by clicking here. Browse the pages by using the image number arrow.

The U.S. Census Series of articles highlight examples from the federal census that give an Irish county/place of birth.To read about other examples like this click the 'Census Series' label, below.

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[1] All total numbers and percentages come from a manual tabulation from the relevant census pages. Small errors are quite possible.