The Patrickswell Brownes Blog

It is always refreshing and insightful to see what research problems others have to grapple with as they aim to uncover more about their Irish ancestors and where they come from in Ireland. Learning how other do their research, and the sources they have consulted, can help us become better genealogists.

I recently stumbled across the Patrickswell Brownes blog. Started in December 2015, it walks readers through the research of an unnamed person as they learn more about their Browne ancestors. The posts are insightful, detailed and show a very good knowledge of sources in the United States and Ireland. Bonus points, too, for the healthy dose of citations. 

There have been 14 posts so far and it is worth reading from the beginning.

Patrickswell Brownes blog - First post. 

Mortuary Records Of The Catholic Order of Foresters Talk

I got to attend my first Back To Our Past conference in Dublin a few weeks ago and there was one talk in particular that I had earmarked to attend: Finding Your American Cousins - A New Source for Massachusetts Mortuary Records, 1880 - 1943. This talk was about a topic I have blogged about before, the mortuary records of the Catholic Order of Foresters (COF) (access here and here). 

To quickly recap, the COF was a fraternal life insurance organization founded in Boston in 1879 by a group of Irish immigrants. Over the ensuing decades, the organization spread throughout the state and by the end of the 19th century there were ninety-five branches throughout Massachusetts.[1]

Mary Choppa, of the Massachusetts based Irish Ancestral Research Association, and Joanne Riley, an archivist at the Healey Library, University of Massachusetts Boston, crossed the Atlantic to give the talk. They started by outlining what the Catholic Order of Foresters was, what information was contained in the mortuary records, and how they came into the possession of TIARA and then the Healey library.

The genealogical strength of the mortuary records lie in the considerable level of detail that a person had to provide to get an insurance policy and the efforts and correspondence that were undertaken to ensure all relevant parties received a payout when the policy holder passed away. I hope to have an example of such a mortuary record on this blog in the next couple of weeks but for now I'll summarize the main points that were discussed.

• Women were admitted to the Order, starting in 1894
• The branches that were set up all over Massachusetts were called courts and there are surviving records of the activities of each court
• There are 79,000 records available and they cover the years 1879 up to the late 1960s/early 1970s.
• Each record contains between 8 and 29 pages
• Information in the records include details such as name, address, information about parents and siblings including when and how parents died, name and address of one friend, details about beneficiaries including maiden and married name of females, names of family members even if they were not beneficiaries
• The beneficiaries were sometimes family members who lived in Ireland. The records for such a person include correspondence between the family members in Ireland and the COF.
• They are currently open for people to access up to 1943. A 72 year rule of access applies and as each year passes, one more new year of records will be accessible to the public
• A different death certificate was supplied than the state/city issued civil death certificate, which can potentially have different information
• The court that a person was a member of can indicate where the person resided in the state

The speakers noted that practically every Irish American family in Massachusetts today has at least one ancestor who can be found in these records. Currently, you can search an index of names through 1935 and apply to the Healey library for a copy of the documents. Records for the years 1936 to 1943 are also available and contact should be made with the Healey Library to search those years. An added bonus was disclosed at that talk in that the records up to 1935 will be making their way onto Familysearch.org in the future.  They will be indexed and all images will be digitized. No date was provided so keep an eye on the regular Familysearch.org new record announcements.

---

[1] TIARA. Tiara Foresters Project. 2011. http://tiara.ie/forest.php: accessed 16 December 2013.

My Ancestors Were From Cork

Having ancestors from Cork comes up time and time again when speaking with people in the American genealogy world. The names of these ancestors can sometimes be very 'Cork-like,' such as Cornelius Mahoney or Jeremiah Murphy. This came to mind when I wrote two of my recent posts (U.S. Census Series: Ward I, Boston 1860 and U.S. Naval Enlistment Records). In both, Cork has, by far, the largest representation from those who had their county of birth recorded. This is a potentially interesting observation and is worth looking at in more detail.

Can we say that if you don't know where your ancestors are from, and you want to play the percentages game, then Cork is the best place to start looking?

Before we go with this hypothesis it is worth highlighting three important points:

(i) about 10% of Irish people in the Naval enlistment records and 57% of Irish people in the Ward 1, Boston census returns recorded a place of birth. As this is the case, caution should be used before extrapolating any findings from the subset of records that record place of birth. 

(ii) these examples are just two record sets, one a point in time survey (census) from 1860 and the other (naval enlistment records) is a record set created via self-selection, as in some people chose to enlist, while others did not.

(iii) while it can't be measured, a maxim I have learned is that leaving from Ireland via the port of Cobh (known as Queenstown from approx. 1849 to 1922) can sometimes turn into 'born in Cork,' as family stories are passed down through the generations.

Despite all this, two interesting observations can be made if we look at statistics that can help with genealogical research. First, in the 1851 to 1880 period, county Cork had the largest number of emigrants leave Ireland (table one). 

Table 1: County with the highest number of emigrants leaving Ireland, 1851-1880[1]
1851-1855	1856-1860	1861-1870	1871-1880
1. Cork	1. Cork	1. Cork	1. Cork
2. Tipperary	2. Antrim	2. Antrim	2. Antrim
3. Limerick	3. Down	3. Tipperary	3. Down
4. Kerry	4. Tipperary	4. Limerick	4. Donegal
5. Galway	5. Limerick	5. Kerry	5. Tyrone

Second, Cork had the largest population of all counties in the 1851 to 1881 period (table two).  

Table 2: County with the largest population in Ireland, 1851-1881[2]
1851	1861	1871	1881
1. 653,512 Cork	1. 544,818 Cork	1. 517,076 Cork	1. 495,607 Cork
2. 410,919 Dublin	2. 410,252 Dublin	2. 405,262 Dublin	2. 421,913 Antrim
3. 352,912 Antrim	3. 368,977 Antrim	3. 404,015 Antrim	3. 418,910 Dublin
4. 333,650 Tipperary	4. 308,913 Down	4. 293,449 Down	4. 272,107 Down
5. 328,860 Down	5. 271,478 Galway	5. 249,720 Galway	5. 241,212 Mayo

It could be inferred that the reason Cork had the highest number of emigrants was because it was the county with the largest population. However, Dublin was the second most populous county in the same time period but did not produce the second highest number of emigrants. A casual observation for Cork and Dublin could be there that there were less economic opportunities in a large rural county than in a predominantly urban one. However, the 'large population = lots of emigrates' trend re-emerges with Antrim, the county with the third highest population and home to the second largest city on the island, Belfast.

So, to answer the question posed at the start: based purely on emigration numbers, probably, but even though Cork had the largest number of emigrants, that percentage is probably going to be small.

---

[1] Miller, Kerby A. Emigrants and Exiles: Ireland and the Irish Exodus to North America. New York : Oxford University Press, 1985.

[2] Census of Ireland for the Year 1891, Preliminary report with abstract of the enumerators' summaries 1891. Dublin: Alexander Thom. 1891.p. 13.  Available online at

http://www.histpop.org/ohpr/servlet/PageBrowser?path=Browse/Census%20(by%20geography)/Ireland/1891&active=yes&mno=437&tocstate=expandnew&display=sections&display=tables&display=pagetitles&pageseq=13&zoom=4: accessed 14 May 2015.

Catholic Order Of Foresters Indexing Project

In January 2014, I wrote about The Irish Ancestral Research Association and highlighted the databases on their site. One database contains information about the records for the Massachusetts Catholic Order of Foresters. This was a fraternal life insurance organization founded in Boston in 1879 by a group of Irish immigrants. Over the ensuing decades, the organization spread throughout the state and by the end of the 19th century there were ninety-five branches throughout Massachusetts.[1]

An archivist from the Joseph P. Healey Library, University of Massachusetts-Boston got in touch to let me know about the efforts that have led to the creation of an online index for this set of records on the library website. This index facility includes more search parameters and also contains the most recent versions of the indexing efforts, a project that is still ongoing. Records for the Foresters, which are housed at the library, are available through 1942, with the index currently covering the years up to 1935.

Read more about the Catholic Order of Foresters, access the indexing project database, and learn where to write to for copies of the records by clicking here.

---

[1] TIARA. Tiara Foresters Project. 2011. http://tiara.ie/forest.php: accessed 16 December 2013.

U.S. Census Series: Ward 1, Boston 1860

One of the recurring features of this website is the U.S. Census Series, where I highlight the rare instances of Irish place of birth/origin recorded on census documents (access other examples in the Census Series section of the website). This example is probably the most well known: Boston, Ward 1 in the 1860 federal census.

Boston 1865 (Ward 1/North End dark pink color) [1]

The population of Boston at the time of the 1860 census was 177,840.[2] Irish-born people accounted for a large proportion of that count at almost 26%.[3] Ward 1 was the electoral district for the famous North End. Today, this area is known as an Italian American community, but the area was dominated by the Irish from the time of the Famine to about 1880.[4] 

Approximately 3,200 Irish born people in Ward 1 had their county of birth recorded. More than one third of these people were born in Cork, with other significant populations from Galway, Derry/Londonderry, Sligo, and Dublin.

County	Approx. No. of Entries*
Cork	1,376
Galway	496
Derry/Londonderry	251
Sligo	264
Dublin	180
Roscommon	101
Waterford	82
Limerick	77
Clare	66
Laois (indexed as Queens)	57
Longford	46
Wexford	39
Kildare	30
Tipperary	25
Down	19
Offaly (indexed as Kings)	19
Kerry (some indexed as Carey)	14
Carlow	10
Westmeath (indexed as West Made)	11
Monaghan (some indexed as Monahan)	7
Fermanagh (indexed as Fermanna/Fammana)	4
Leitrim	2
Armagh	1
Donegal	1
Mayo	1
Wexford	1
Tyrone (indexed as Terone) - see comment	1
Cavan	0
Louth	0
Meath	0
Antrim	0
Wicklow	0
County not listed, place is	10 approx
TOTAL	3191

The 1860 federal census can be accessed on websites such as Familysearch (index only), Ancestry, Findmypast, and Fold3.

*Note: numbers are very close approximates as it is difficult to count every single example.

EDIT (5/16/15): The ward boundaries in Boston changed a number of times in the 19th century. The ward boundaries in operation during the 1860 federal census were enacted in 1850. This map is from an 1865 publication and they were changed during that year. However, the map has a date of 1855 in the lower right corner (see link in footnote to view) and the boundaries on this map seem to be congruent with the description of the 1850 boundaries. For more information, read here.

---

[1] Colton, G.W. 1865. Colton's Map of Boston and Adjacent Cities. New York, NY:  J. H. Colton, No. 172 William St. New York. p.31. Available online http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~208629~5003410:Boston-and-Adjacent-Cities-?qvq=w4s:/where/Boston+(Mass.);lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=6&trs=221# :accessed 25 April 2015

[2] United States Census Bureau. 1860 Fast Facts, 10 Largest Urban Places. 2014. https://www.census.gov/history/www/through_the_decades/fast_facts/1860_fast_facts.html: accessed 25 April 2015.

[3] The Familysearch.org index gives a figure of 46,026 for the Irish born population.

[4] Goldfeld, Alex R.  The North End: A Brief History of Boston's Oldest Neighborhood. Charleston, SC: History Press. 2009.

Maps Of Select U.S. Cities 1930

I came across this interesting set of maps on the National Historic Geographical Information System website (NHGIS).[1] NHGIS provides free online access to summary statistics and GIS[2] boundary files for U.S. censuses and other nationwide surveys from 1790 through the present.[3] There are different sample maps to view, one of which is a set of maps for three U.S. cities, created from 1930 federal census data.

The maps show the distribution of first and second generation Irish immigrants in the cities of Boston, Chicago, and Pittsburgh. There can sometimes be ambiguity as to whether a first generation immigrant is the foreign-born person who immigrated or their native-born children. Social science researchers and demographers mostly refer to the first generation as those who are foreign-born and immigrated to the U.S.

Unfortunately the detail is not of the highest quality on the maps and there are no sub-boundaries for the cities. However, they can be useful when used with more detail maps of the cities. They indicate areas with high concentrations of Irish-born people and their children, and can be useful as  a starting point to work out where an immigrant might have lived upon arrival, if not already known. The thinking being that a new immigrant is more likely to first stay in an area with a lot of Irish people.

You can see this and other non-Irish maps on the NHGIS website by clicking here.

Note: as you can probably make out on the maps, the definition of Irish for this map includes those born in the then Free State and Northern Ireland.

---

[1] Minnesota Population Center. National Historical Geographic Information System: Version 2.0. 2011. https://www.nhgis.org/map-archive#Irish: accessed 6 December 2014

[2] Geographic Information Systems

[3] Minnesota Population Center. National Historical Geographic Information System: Version 2.0. 2011. https://www.nhgis.org/user-resources/project-description: accessed 6 December 2014

Bearded Irish Clam Diggers, Boston 1882

This is a simple yet fascinating photo of probable Irish immigrants in Boston in the 1880s. Working men and women are gathered around some of the tools of their trade to be forever immortalized by a rare photographer.

Source: National Archives - Records of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1868-2008.

NEHGS Article

Marie E. Daly is an expert on researching Irish ancestors in Boston and Massachusetts. The New England Historic Genealogical Society has an article that she wrote with the title 'Identifying the Origin of Your Irish Immigrant Ancestor.' [1]

Some of the links might not work due to the age of the article but it contains a wealth of information on the topic the author writes about. Daly discusses immigration and naturalization records, passenger arrival and departure lists, tombstone inscriptions, newspapers, business records, and other records.

You can read the article here.

---

[1] Daly, Marie E. Identifying the Origin of Your Irish Immigrant Ancestor. 22 May 2000. Available online at http://www.americanancestors.org/identifying-origin-your-irish-immigrant-ancestor : accessed 2 January 2014.

TIARA II

(Click here, or scroll down, for the first TIARA article.)

There are three more TIARA databases worth pointing out. Of particular interest to those searching for their townland of origin is the members' surname database. Names from Ahaesy to Yore, and everything in between, are featured. The vast majority have an Irish place of origin, where the person with that name emigrated to, and a year of birth for what is presumed to be the earliest known ancestor. You can also contact the member if you think you have an ancestor in common.

TIARA members have also transcribed headstone information and created name indexes from three Catholic cemeteries: St. John's, Worcester; Old St. Mary's, Canton; and St. Patrick's and Calvary, Brockton.

Lastly, if you have ancestors from Worcester, MA, then this final database will be of interest to you: the Worcester Irish Project. It was compiled by father and son team John and Thomas Canavan and consists of transcriptions from vital, census, and naturalization records concerning people from the city. Irish places of origin are to be found for some people in the database.

If you have Massachusetts Irish ancestors then it really is worth being a member of this organization and checking out their website.

TIARA I

TIARA, the Irish Ancestral Research Association, is an Irish genealogy group based in the Boston area of Massachusetts (click here to learn more about their meetings). As the largest Irish genealogy group in a traditionally Irish state they have many interesting databases on their website.

One such database that they feature is information from the Massachusetts Catholic Order of Foresters. This was a fraternal life insurance organization founded in Boston in 1879 by a group of Irish immigrants. Over the ensuing decades the organization spread throughout the state and by the end of the 19th century there were ninety-five branches throughout Massachusetts.[1]

TIARA has created an index for mortuary records from the Foresters. The database contains over 27,000 names of members who died between 1880 and 1935. Many Famine era immigrants would have passed away during those years. This index will make it easier to find the records of relevance to you. The records are at the University of Massachusetts and are supposed to come online on the Familysearch website at an as yet unknown date. 

Click here to read more about the Foresters organization and this project.

Check the next blog post in a few days for more about TIARA databases.

---

[1] TIARA. Tiara Foresters Project. 2011. http://tiara.ie/forest.php: accessed 16 December 2013.

Boston College Irish Genealogy Collection

Academic institutions are often overlooked by genealogists. Yet, they can contain important primary and secondary sources for genealogical research, along with considerable holdings of relevant books. Boston College has a considerable selection of resources at its main campus library, the O’Neill library.

Their collections includes a large number of “How To” guides; subscriptions to commercial genealogy websites; passenger list publications; place and place name books; family name information; and many other resources.

Unfortunately, it seems that only faculty and staff can access their holdings, but it is worth getting in contact to see if those not affiliated with the college can conduct research.

More widely, the college has access to a large number of databases relevant to Irish genealogy that can be accessed by any resident of Massachusetts with a library card.