Montreal Emigrant Society, 1832

The Montreal Emigrant Society was founded in 1831 to provide safe passage, employment, and relief to poor and destitute immigrants from Ireland and Great Britain. They arrived at Montreal after a trans-Atlantic crossing but that was not the final destination for many. The Society helped them on their way to other parts of Canada and also provided temporary accommodation and food.

In total, between 1831 and 1835, the society provided assistance to 49,740 immigrants. In 1832, 8,763 received assistance to settle in other parts of Canada.[1] One of the passage books from this year survives and provides information for almost 2,000 immigrants. It covers the dates from 23 May to 1 November. The entries record the names of single adults or heads of families, along with ages of the adults, ages of any children, ticket number, where sent, occupation, and 'where from.' For Irish immigrants, a county of origin is provided.

Montreal Emigrant Society Passage Book - Entry for Pat Murphy & brother, and others

For example, Pat Murphy and his brother traveled on ticket 314 to Cornwall on 13 June 1832. Both were under 14 years of age and were from Armagh.[2] Another entry outlines that Lawrance Ryan and his wife, both aged between 20 and 40, and their three children, one an infant, another aged between 7 and 14, and a third over 14 years, travelled on ticket 841 to Prescott on 21 July 1832. He was a farmer, originally from Cork.[3]

You can access the database by clicking here. It is a good idea to read about the records and the database limitations before searching. While the ledger pages were scanned, they were seemingly not done so at a high resolution, as can be seen by clicking the image, above.

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[1] Library and Archives Canada. Immigrants Sponsored by the Montreal Emigrant Society, 1832. 24 April 2014. http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/immigration/immigration-records/immigrants-montreal-emigrant-society/Pages/introduction.aspx: accessed 10 February 2015.

[2] “Immigrants Sponsored by the Montreal Emigrant Society, 1832”, database, Library and Archives Canada (http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca : accessed 10 February 2015), entry for Patrick Murphy, 13 June 1832; citing  Montreal Emigrant Society Passage Book, Microfilm Number H-962, Volume 46, Reference RG7 G18, Item 1229

[3] “Immigrants Sponsored by the Montreal Emigrant Society, 1832”, database, Library and Archives Canada (http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca : accessed 10 February 2015), entry for Lawrence Ryan, 21 July 1832; citing  Montreal Emigrant Society Passage Book, Microfilm Number H-962, Volume 46, Reference RG7 G18, Item 1654.

From Achill To Cleveland

In 2003, the town of Achill in Co. Mayo was twinned with the city of Cleveland, Ohio. The reason for this twinning was due to the considerable number of Achill emigrants who settled in the city over the last 150 years.

A great example of this connection is seen in the Lavelle Family From Achill to Cleveland website. Lavelle is one of those wonderful rare Irish names and can be tied to a particular part of Ireland. MacLysaght's The Surnames of Ireland outlines that it "is the name of a north Connacht sept, also found in Donegal."[1] Indeed, the website has documented 44 different Lavelle families who settled in Cleveland from Achill.

Estimates vary as to how many Clevelanders have Achill ancestry with anything from 25%[2] to 80%[3] claiming such links. However, I have not been able to find cited documentation to support these numbers.

Do you have Irish ancestors in the Cleveland area and are looking for their place of origin? Chances are, they were from Achill.

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[1] MccLysaght, Edward. The Surnames of Ireland. Dublin: Irish Academic Press. p. 190.

[2] Lavelle Family From Achill to Cleveland. Year Unknown. http://lavelles.us: accessed 6 January 2015

[3] Author Unknown. History of the Twinning of Cleveland, Ohio and the Parish of Achill, County Mayo, Ireland. Year Unknown http://ead.ohiolink.edu/xtf-ead/view?docId=ead/OCLWHi0286.xml;chunk.id=bioghist_1;brand=default: accessed 6 January 2015.

Naturalization Records From Troup County, Georiga

Troup County, Georgia, was founded in 1826 on the border of that state with Alabama. Documents from the Troup County Archives are available to view via the Digital Library of Georgia. One interesting set of documents is the Inventory of the Troup County, Georgia Superior Court Records 1827-1926, 1936-1937. A subset of these records is ‘Series IV: Naturalizations, 1842-1908.’ Scanned images of the naturalization applications for sixty-eight immigrants are available to view. Eight of these men were from Ireland and their Irish county of origin is recorded on the documentation. They are:

Name                    Year of Naturalization                    County of Origin

Maginis, Daniel                 1843                                       Dublin

Ryan, Daniel                       1854                                       Limerick

Ryan, James                       1854                                       Tipperary

Ryan, John                          1854                                       Limerick

Sullivan, Jeremiah            1855                                       Kerry

Simpson, Thomas            1859                                       Leitrim? (unsure if it is this county)

Gaffney, Thomas              1860                                       Roscommon

Riley, Jeremiah                 1860                                       Cork

Access these records by clicking here. Access the Digital Library of Georgia website by click here.

From Donegal To Philadelphia

The always excellent Irish in the American Civil War website recently had an in-depth article about Irish chain migration to the U.S. Focusing on the life of Private Charles O'Donnell, the blog curator, Damian Shiels, tells the story of how many people from the civil parish of Donaghmore, Co. Donegal emigrated to Philadelphia, PA, beginning in the early 19th century.

Click here to read the full article.

National Archives Virtual Genealogy Fair

Next week sees the 2014 edition of the National Archives Virtual Genealogy Fair take place over three days - Tuesday (28th), Wednesday (29th), and Thursday (30th). All the talks will be available to view for free on YouTube, beginning at 10am eastern (3pm GMT). All levels of expertise are catered for, with the first talk being Introduction to Genealogy and other talks focusing on such topics as federal land records and FBI case files.

One talk caught my eye: Great Granny Eunice came from Ireland, Grandpa Fred was in the War, Can Access Archival Databases (AAD) Help Me? This is on at 10am on Wednesday, October 29th. 

The AAD contains a number of different databases, of which the stand out for those with Irish ancestry is Records for Passengers Who Arrived at the Port of New York During the Irish Famine, created, 1977 - 1989, documenting the period 1/12/1846 - 12/31/1851. It will be interesting to see if this is what the Irish aspect is or if there is more to be obtained from the AAD if you have Irish ancestors.

Click here to access the Virtual Genealogy Fair website.

Back To Our Past

The biggest Irish genealogy fair of the year, Back To Our Past (BTOP), is on in Dublin next month over three days - Friday, October 17th to Sunday, October 19th. BTOP has been running for a number of years and is always a very well attended event.

A central part of BTOP is the talks that expert speakers give. This year there are four that wil be interest to those with emigrant Irish ancestors. 

Friday, October 17th

Irish records on Ancestry.com - home and abroad by Rhona Murray (Ancestry.com). Presentation Area 1, 3:30pm

Saturday, October 18th

Famine emigration from south Wicklow - two sides of the same coin by Jim Rees** (author). Presentation Area 2, 2:30pm.

Emigration through the centuries by Patrick Fitzgerald, Mellon Center for Migration Studies. Presentation Area 2, 1:30pm

Sunday, October 19th

Aspects of emigration from county Cavan by Mary Sullivan (Cavan Genealogy). Presentation Area 2, 3:30pm

You can get the full list of talks by clicking here.

** I have previous written a post about Jim Rees' work in relation to assisted emigration from Wicklow. Click here to read.

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.

From Tyrone/Monaghan To Providence, Rhode Island

A paper in the 1997 Clogher Record [1] has an excellent overview of chain migration from Tyrone and Monaghan to the city of Providence, Rhode Island. The author, Edward McCarron, outlines that “between 1825 and 1865, at least 475 persons from county Tyrone and Monaghan were recorded living in Providence and nearby Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The largest contingent, 148 or 37%, came from the parish of Clogher, with significant numbers hailing from adjacent parishes of Errigal Keerogue and Errigal Truagh, straddling the border of Tyrone and Monaghan.”[2]

These numbers are based on an analysis of naturalization records for the city, of which many give an Irish place of origin. More broadly, fully 53% of Irish people who naturalized in Providence between 1840 and 1860  were from Ulster counties[3] - Tyrone, Monaghan, Antrim, Cavan, Fermanagh, Donegal, Down, Derry/Londonderry, and Armagh (listed in order of percentage of overall total).

McCarron outlines a number of different reasons for this chain migration, two of which were economic decline in south Ulster in the 1820s and 1830s and cheaper tickets to Canada with the aim of crossing the border into the New England states. This 19th century migration had a long-lasting effect, and people from the Clogher Valley were “still trickling into Providence in the 1920s, over one-hundred years after the first Tyrone immigrant was recorded there.”[4]

An analysis such as this is an outstanding example of how local history knowledge in Ireland can be combined with a study of particular record sets in the U.S., to create clear evidence of migration from one part of Ireland to one city in America.

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[1] This is the journal of the Clogher Historical Society. Their research focuses on the diocese of Clogher, which consists of Monaghan, much of Fermanagh, and parts of Tyrone and Donegal.

[2] McCarron, Edward T. Altered States: Tyrone Migration to Providence, Rhode Island During the Nineteenth Century. Clogher Record. Vol. 16. No. 1. 1997. pp. 145-161.

[3] McCarron, p. 146.

[4] McCarron, p 146.

From Tipperary to Rutland County, Vermont

In a random browse through the online version of Bruce Elliott's Irish Migrants in the Canada's[1] (see my article about this fantastic book), I came across a short reference to a migration of Irish people from north Tipperary to Rutland County, Vermont. Peter Patten, who is from that part of Vermont, is an expert on this migration and has researched it extensively.

He outlines that, "In the 1800s the Portroe Slate Quarries were one of the largest employers in North Tipperary. However, the onset of the Great Famine in the 1840s saw a significant decline in the numbers employed in Portroe. Many of those who lost their jobs decided to emigrate and...they pretty much reformed their community [in] Castleton, Vermont, in a strikingly similar landscape."[2]

The density of numbers who made this Tipperary to Rutland County, VT migration is illustrated in this transcribed list of men who naturalized in Rutland County, VT from 1859 to 1873.

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[1] Elliot, Bruce S. Irish Migrants in the Canada's: A New Approach. Belfast. McGill-Queens Press. 2004. p251.

[2] Ormond Historical Society. Portroe to Castleton - The Slate Quarry Emigrants; Rebuilding a Tipperary Community in Rural Vermont. 2013. www.ormondhistory.ie: accessed 27 March 2014.

Wexford Savannah Axis

Last week, the Irish news website, The Journal.ie, had an interesting story about a new historical collaboration between societies and colleges in Wexford, Ireland and Savannah, Georgia (Waterford Institute of Technology, Irish Emigrant Experience Centre in Wexford, Georgia Historical Society, and Center for Irish Research and Teaching at Georgia Southern University). Named the Wexford-Savannah Axis, the project aims to “reveal many stories linking Wexford and Ireland’s ‘sunny southeast’ with Savannah.”[1]

Throughout the 19^th century, a large number of Wexfordians left Ireland for Savannah, GA. The Graves Shipping Company was based in New Ross, Co. Wexford and they opened an office in Savannah. This led to many Wexford natives settling in the southern city.

 

A project such as this has obvious benefits to genealogists. An advertisement for the project outlines that “much migration research focuses on what happens once settlers arrive in the new country, but our Wexford-Savannah Axis initiative explores matters holistically.”[2] Therefore, it is hoped that an analysis of these migrants will include genealogical and biographical research to link them back to their townlands of birth in Ireland. This is definitely a project to keep tabs on.

Watch out for the next blog post, where I will discuss one resource that they will almost certainly use, and how it can be of benefit when looking for the place of origin in Ireland.

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[1] Author Unknown. Wexford Savannah Axis (Project Advertisement). 2014. Available online at http://research.georgiasouthern.edu/blog/2014/03/19/685/: accessed 22 March 2014.

[2] Ibid.