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.

U.S. Census Series: Ward 12, Scranton, Pennsylvania 1870 - Part 2

Click here for Part 1.

The first place that I profiled for the Census Series posts was Scranton, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. In this series, I highlight examples from censuses where the Irish county or place of origin was noted for those that were enumerated. Tables have been compiled showing the number of Irish county examples for all other places in the United States that I have written about, except Scranton. This has now been rectified.

Almost 600 people from Ireland had their counties of birth record by William Carling as he traveled around the 12th Ward of Scranton in his job as a census enumerator for 1860. Scranton is know for its large Irish-American population of Mayo origin and this is reflected in this ward. Carling did not record the county of origin for every Irish person that he met, but we can see that more than half of those that he did were from the western county.

County	Approx. no of entries
Mayo	348
Sligo (incl. Slago)	89
Tipperary	31
Cork	23
Kerry	17
Down	9
Waterford	9
Kilkenny (incl. Killshiney, Killiney, Kilenny, Klinny)	7
Limerick	7
Cavan	5
Laois (Queens)	5
Leitrim (incl. Lutraim)	5
Dublin	4
Offaly (Kings)	4
Galway	3
Roscommon	3
Antrim (incl. Belfast)	2
Armagh	2
Tyrone	2
Donegal	1
Longford (incl. Longfort)	1
Meath	1
Unknown (Fairfield)	4
TOTAL	582

Prince Edward Island Repeal List 1843

The Act of Union came into effect on 1 January 1801 and created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Various efforts at repealing the act occurred both within and outside Ireland. Those who were of this mindset became known as repealers and many Repeal Associations were established in the United States and Canada. One such example was in Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada in the 1840s.

In the 1980s, Terrence M. Punch (more about him in a recent blog post) wrote  in The Island Magazine about finding newspaper articles from 1843 that listed the names of Irish repelaers in PEI. Importantly, an Irish place of birth was also provided for many of the men. The newspaper in questions was the Halifax-based Register and the lists of names were published in various editions from October and November of that year.

Punch's first publication[1] provides the names of 149 men and over 100 Irish places of birth. His second[2] lists 253 men with the majority of names also having an Irish birthplace provided. You can access both publications on the website of the University of Prince Edward Island, as they have digitized old editions of The Island Magazine, or click the links below.

A Prince Edward Island Repeal List for 1843 (pdf)

A Prince Edward Island Repeal List for 1843 Part Two (pdf)

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[1] Punch, Terrence M. A Prince Edward Island Repeal List for 1843. The Island Magazine. 1986, no. 20 Fall Winter. pp. 29-31. Available online at http://vre2.upei.ca/islandmagazine/fedora/repository/vre%3Aislemag-batch2-266: accessed 31 January 2016.

[2] Punch, Terrence M. A Prince Edward Island Repeal List for 1843. The Island Magazine. 1987, no. 21 Spring Summer. pp. 33-36. Available online at http://vre2.upei.ca/islandmagazine/fedora/repository/vre%3Aislemag-batch2-281: accessed 31 January 2016.

U.S. Census Series: Wheeling, West Virginia 1880

About 30,000 residents were enumerated in Wheeling, West Virginia in the 1880 U.S. federal census. Irish immigrants accounted for about 5% of the population at that point. J.L Stauton[1] was the census enumerator in the first sub-district of the 6th Ward. This section was in the downtown area where Market, Main and 20th Sts. straddle Wheeling Creek as it flows into the Ohio river. As he went about his work, he recorded the county or province of birth for about 55% of Irish immigrants that he enumerated.

Page from 1880 U.S. federal census, Wheeling, West Virginia

The 1880 federal census also asked for the place of birth of the person's parents and he also recorded this information. This can be particularly useful if one of the parents is deceased. For example 23 year old Alice Moran, is living with her mother Mary at 31 Main St.[2] Alice is listed as being born in West Virginia, mother born in Kilkenny and father born in Dublin. There is no male of the correct age living with the family so he may be deceased. Despite this possibility, we know what county in Ireland he most likely came from.

It is interesting to note the strong presence of people from Connaught, with Mayo, Galway, Roscommon, and Connaught itself, all heavily represented. The numbers for place of birth information from this 6th Ward sub-district are:

Galway 13

Mayo 13

Connaught 6

Roscommon 5

Cork 3

Derry 3

Ulster 3

Tyrone  3

Kilkenny 3

Sligo 2

Donegal 2

Laois (Queens) 1

Longford 1

Dublin 1

Carlow 1

Down 1

Munster 1 [3]

Cavan    1
Total 63

Ireland  50

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[1] That is my best effort at interpreting his signature at the top of the census pages.

[2] Ancestry.com, 1800 US Census, Ohio County, West Virginia, population schedule, City of Wheeling 1st Supervisors District, Sheet 2B, House 17, family 21, Alice Moran; digital image, Ancestry.com http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 2 February 2015; citing Family History Film 1255410 Roll 1410. 

[3] This could refer to Munster, Germany

New Troy Irish Genealogy Society Database II

Last week, Irish Genealogy News reported that the Troy Irish Genealogy Society (TIGS) released another fantastic database of records. St. John’s Cemetery, Albany, NY Interment Records, 1841- 1887 contains over 12,700 transcriptions, of which almost 4,000 of these are for people from Ireland. What makes this record set even better is that the county of origin is provided for almost 3,400 of those Irish-born people.

The importance of having local knowledge and of preservation efforts are both seen in the description of how these records came to light. The TIGS website outlines that the interment book was in the possession of a former employee of another Catholic cemetery in the area and was in a gradual state of  decay. Who know what would have happened to these records if they had not been discovered by those who knew the genealogical importance of the information contained in that book.

You can read all about the records and access the database in the TIGS website by clicking here.

Troy Irish Genealogy Society is listed in the GSI database on this website. Click here to read a Townland of Origin article from January 2014 about other databases that the group launched on their website.

How A Professional Genealogist Found Her Townland Of Origin, Part II

This is the second post from professional genealogist, Lisa Walsh Dougherty, about how she found her townland of origin. To read her first post scroll down, or click here.

Lisa (Walsh) Dougherty has been an avid family history researcher for nearly 20 years.  Since 2009, she has shared her knowledge and experience with many through her volunteer hours, workshop trainings, and commissioned research.  A member of the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG) and a graduate of the ProGen Study Group, she specializes in helping people with Irish roots discover their “Townland of Origin”.  Lisa is based in Upstate New York near Albany, and provides a free consultation toward assisting you in finding your own unique family story! You can find out about Lisa's professional genealogy services on her APG profile page.

Her website is Upstate NY Genealogy.

My great-great grandmother, Anne Mortimer, left County Laois (then Queen’s County), Ireland in the mid-1860s.  She married a man, James Walsh, who was native to nearly the same area, and they settled in Troy, NY.  Two brothers and a sister also emigrated and lived nearby, at least initially.  A brother John remained in Ireland, where he raised a large family.  The Mortimer letter writers of the 1970s, and the Mortimers who remain in the area today, are descended from John and his wife Maria Bennett.

Over the years 2000 to 2013, while busy with raising our son, I posted on a variety of genealogy message boards, and received sporadic replies from various family members, telling me of other Mortimer family members.  One who owned a pub in Kinsale, another who played in Wham’s backup band, still another who was a member of a popular UK “boy band” of the 1990s.  Those Mortimers were indeed a talented and diverse bunch, scattered all over the globe.

Recently, comparing family trees on Ancestry.com, I stumbled across a tree that contained many of the same Mortimers that mine did.  I contacted the owner, who turned out to be a local Laois woman with a wealth of knowledge about the area and its families.  She gave me information about family members who had remained in Ireland that I did not have, and I was able to fill her in on those who had emigrated. After an absence of 14 years, I finally returned to Ireland in April 2014. My new-found Ancestry contact was able to arrange for me to meet my cousin, Sean Mortimer, brother of Brendan Mortimer who had shown us around in 1999, now, sadly, deceased.  We had a wonderful visit—he lives very nearby the townland of Killinure where my great-great grandmother was born.

3^rd cousins Lisa (Walsh) Dougherty and Sean Mortimer, Killinure, County Laois, April 12, 2014

Since returning home, I've become Facebook “friends” with several other Mortimers from County Laois, many of whom heard of my visit through the grapevine.  Plans are underway for the formation of a Facebook group dedicated to the descendants of Michael Mortimer and Catherine Phalen, where we can all connect, share pictures, stories and interesting tidbits, 140 years after the family was separated.  Modern technology continues to propel my research forward, but the foundation laid by those 1970s letters is the strength the Mortimer family tree is built on.  My dad would approve, wherever he is today. 

How A Professional Genealogist Found Her Townland Of Origin, Part I

This week and next, Townland of Origin is delighted to have guest posts from professional genealogist, Lisa Walsh Dougherty. Lisa has been researching her Irish ancestry since the 1990s. In her article, she outlines how she found her townland of origin.

Lisa (Walsh) Dougherty has been an avid family history researcher for nearly 20 years.  Since 2009, she has shared her knowledge and experience with many through her volunteer hours, workshop trainings, and commissioned research.  A member of the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG) and a graduate of the ProGen Study Group, she specializes in helping people with Irish roots discover their “Townland of Origin”.  Lisa is based in Upstate New York near Albany, and provides a free consultation toward assisting you in finding your own unique family story! You can find out about Lisa's professional genealogy services on her APG profile page.

Her website is Upstate NY Genealogy.

I grew up being aware and very proud of my Irish roots.  It was something that made a huge impression on me, and I remember it always being a part of my life.  When I was a teenager, my father, Jack Walsh, became interested in genealogy, and his one goal was to find out about his Irish roots.  I don't think I was aware until much later that my dad was only half-Irish, because this was the only part of his origins that he was interested in.  He pursued his family history the way many people did in those days, by visiting family plots in cemeteries, utilizing local libraries, and writing letters.  A gravestone found in St. Joseph’s Cemetery in Troy, New York, revealed a puzzling place of origin for his great-grandfather James Walsh—Osary, Queen’s County.  Research in the local library told us that Queen’s County was now called Laois, and Osary was actually Ossory.  An ad placed in the Laois Nationalist newspaper seeking information on the Walsh family (with a mention of the wife’s maiden name, Anne Mortimer) yielded surprising results in the form of several letters from Mortimer family members who very well could have been cousins!

Alas, Dad passed away in 1990, after a short-lived interest in genealogy only got him so far.  His desire for answers and legacy lived on—I found his genealogy folder 5 years after his death, stuffed in a drawer and forgotten.  With the dawn of the internet, and a whole new world of possibilities opening up, the time was ripe for new discoveries. This was the beginning of my own personal obsession with family history, and for me it has been not fleeting, but life-changing.

My husband and I went on our first of 4 trips to Ireland in the 1990s, with a guided tour in 1996.  It was not nearly enough to satisfy my hunger for all things Irish.  I dug out the Mortimer letters from the 1970s, booked a B&B nearby where they had been sent from, and started my journey.  In 1997, I met Jim Mortimer, one of the letter writers, knew we were cousins, but did not know how.  By our 4th trip in 1999, the B&B owners where we stayed had become good friends, and were seeking out my Mortimer relatives for me so I could meet them when I got there!  Their detective work introduced me to more members of the Mortimer clan, including an audience with an elderly gentleman, Michael Mortimer, who had a razor-sharp memory, and his son Brendan who showed us the family homestead high in the Slieve Bloom Mountains.  A chance meeting in the local pub with the parish priest’s bridge partner got my sister and I in to copy the baptism and marriage records.  Only after a thorough examination of those, together with the memories in the 1970s letters, was I able to piece together everyone’s relationship.

On Monday, learn more about those relationships and which townland Lisa’s ancestors came from.

Langford Goes From Laois To London, Ontario

Over the past few months the Irish Genealogical Research Society, based in London, England, has put some very useful databases on their website. The most recent addition was a database of 250,000 names taken from their journal the Irish Genealogist (IG).

This journal is a treasure trove of decades of genealogy articles of all types: family genealogies; research on the occupations, clothing and customs of our ancestors; and transcriptions from all sorts of family history records, such as parish registers, voter registrations and membership rolls, to name just a few.

I recently came across some editions of the IG on the shelves of the Virginia Room at the City of Fairfax library in Fairfax, VA. These journals, from the 1970s, had many articles of interest to those looking for an ancestor’s townland of origin in Ireland.

One very interesting article was "The Journal of an Emigrant to Canada."[1] It detailed the diary entries of Thomas Alexander Langford from Laois (also known as Leix and Queen's County)  as he traveled to his uncle Isaac in London, Ontario, Canada. He sailed from Liverpool to New York City in December 1853 and then took various modes of transportation up through the state of New York and across the border.

It was a fascinating read and told of the ships journey, being quarantined on Staten Island, his stay in New York City, and his travels northwards. 

Did he meet his uncle in the end? You'll have to get a copy of the article to find out! 

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[1] Begley, Donal. “The Journal of an Emigrant to Canada.” Irish Genealogist. Vol 6. No. 1. 1974. pp.43-47.