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 Emigration Lists, 1833-1839 - Lists of Emigrants Extracted from the OrdnanceSurvey Memoirs for Counties Londonderry and Antrim. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company. 2007.

Mitchell, Brian. Irish Passenger Lists, 1847-1871 - Lists of Passengers Sailing from Londonderry to America on Ships of the J. & J. Cooke Line and the McCorkell Line. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company. 2001.

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.

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

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.

Information Wanted Ads II - Philadelphia

This post is about 'information wanted' ads in a Philadelphia newspaper, the Catholic Herald. Scroll down if on the homepage or click here to learn what 'information wanted' ads are and to read about the most famous example of them: those in the Boston Pilot newspaper.

The Catholic Herald newspaper was published weekly in Philadelphia, PA from 1833 to 1856.[1] Before 1833, this paper existed in various incarnations, first hitting the Philadelphia newsstands in 1822, titled The Catholic Herald and Advocate.[2] After 1856, it merged with various other newspapers (click here for a full explanation of Catholic newspaper mergers in 19th century Philadelphia).

From the early years of its publication it attracted a considerable Irish immigrant audience. This therefore made it the perfect paper in which to put information wanted ads. While many of those seeing information were based in Philadelphia, others lived across Pennsylvania and in different states. The following two examples vividly illustrate the rich genealogical information that can be contained in the ads:

James Delany[3]

Slone (?) and Kelly[4]

You can access the Catholic Herald via digital and microfilm editions -

Villanova University Digital Library: 1835-1848, various years and editions.

Philadelphia Archdiocesan Historical Research Center microfilms, the center has the following copies: January 3, 1833 through January 4, 1862; January 10, 1863 through December 24, 1864; Sept. 7 and 28, 1867.

There is a also a book of transcribed records from the newspaper that may be useful:
Schive Mowrer, Rita. The Catholic Herald (varied dates, 1833-1846) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, excerpts of genealogical interest. Philadelphia, PA: Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 1970.

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[1] Chronicling America. About The Catholic herald. (Philadelphia [Pa.) 1833-1856.  Year Unknown. Available online at http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87052015: accessed 5 September 2014.

[2] Philadelphia Archdiocesan Historical Research Center. Catholic Newspapers in Philadelphia. Year Unknown. Available online at http://www.pahrc.net/index.php/research-and-collections/newspapers/catholic-newspapers-in-philadelphia: accessed 26 September 2014

[3] The Catholic Herald. Vol. III No. 43. Thursday, October 22 1835. Whole Number: 147. Delany p.172. Available online at http://digital.library.villanova.edu/Collection/vudl:216069: accessed 5 September 2014

[4] The Catholic Herald. Vol. XVI No. 5. Thursday, February 3, 1848. Whole Number: 787. Kelly and Slone p.40. Available online at http://digital.library.villanova.edu/Collection/vudl:216069: accessed 5 September 2014

County Derry/Londonderry Emigration List, 1834-1836

In the 1820s, the British Parliament hatched an ambitious plan to survey the whole of Ireland. Along with the maps, memoirs were to be created which would be written descriptions to accompany the maps. The memoirs were to include information about such aspects as natural features of the land, modern and ancient topography, occupations, religion, emigration, and habits of the people. Sadly, the plan was not realized for the whole of Ireland.[1] 

But the hoped for incredible level of detail was collected for the first two counties surveyed, Derry and Antrim. In particular, this included lists of people who emigrated, where they went to, and what townland they were from.

A listing of emigrants from four (civil) parishes in County Derry is freely available on the Library and Archives Canada (LAC) website. Emigration Lists of Various County Londonderry Parishes was compiled by Dr. D.A. Chart from documents at the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin. He presented the document to LAC around 1935. 

Section from Emigration Lists of Various County Londonderry Parishes

In total it comprises 52 pages and lists hundreds of emigrants. Information includes: name of emigrant, year of emigration, port of arrival, age, religion, and townland of origin. Emigrants are listed traveling to New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Quebec, and St. John's. Place such as Scotland, Liverpool, and Jamaica are also listed.

It is a truly outstanding resource and is freely available in pdf format to consult and download. Access it here.

The Ordnance Survey memoirs for various Irish counties are available to purchase on the Ulster Historical Foundation website.

Brian Mitchell, a prominent Derry based genealogist, has published the listing of emigrants from both Derry and Antrim in his book, Irish Emigration Lists, 1833-1839.

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[1] Public Records Office of Northern Ireland. Year Unknown.  Local History 3: Ordnance Survey Memoirs. http://www.proni.gov.uk/no.3_-_ordnance_survey_memoirs__52kb_.pdf: accessed 12 August 2014

Friendly Sons of Philly

List of Members of the Hibernian Society for the Relief of Emigrants from Ireland......[1] contains a listing of members of fraternal Irish societies in Philadelphia in the 18th and 19th centuries. Primarily, there is the Friendly Sons of St Patrick, founded in 1771. This organization is still in existence today and you can find more information about it at www.friendlysons.com. The Friendly Sons has had other sub-groups throughout its existence, such as the Hibernian Society for the Relief of Emigrants from Ireland.

The publication is divided into various listings:

p. 5 Presidents, Secretaries, and Treasurers, Friendly Sons of St. Patrick (names and year elected)

p. 6 Presidents, Secretaries, and Treasurers, Hibernian Society (names and year elected)

p. 8 Members, Friendly Sons of St. Patrick (names and year elected)

p. 10 Honorary Members, Friendly Sons of St. Patrick (names and year elected)

p. 11 Members of the Hibernian Society for the Relief of Emigrants from Ireland (names and year elected)

p. 31 Present Members of the Hibernian Society, 31 March, 1884 (names and addresses)

You can view it on the Harvard University Digital Collections website.

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[1] Author Unknown. List of Members of the Hibernian Society for the Relief of Emigrants from Ireland Together with the List of Members of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, 1771-1884. Philadelphia: The Society. 1884.

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.

Philadelphia Archdiocesan Historical Research Center

Philadelphia was one of the many northeastern cities that saw heavy Irish immigration in the 19th and early 20th centuries. That automatically makes the Catholic Church records of the area a valuable genealogical resource. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia covers the city and county of Philadelphia, along with Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties. It was founded in 1808 from the Archdiocese of Baltimore and originally encompassed all of Pennsylvania, Delaware and some of New Jersey.

The main place of research is the Philadelphia Archdiocesan Historical Research Center (PAHRC) in Wynnewood, PA. At the center there are many sources of interest to genealogists: parish histories; Catholic newspapers; manuscripts; and periodicals are just some of the resources.

Most importantly, though, are the baptismal and marriage registers, along with records for three orphanages (St. John’s Orphan Asylum, St. Joseph’s House for Homeless Boys, and St. Francis’ Industrial School in Eddington). An important year of reference for research in the registers is 1920. After this year, the records are at the individual parishes and for inquiries before this year you need to contact the center (they don't seem to reference the year 1920 itself, but it is presumed they are at the center too).

While the PAHRC is open to research by appointment you can't conduct research in the parish registers yourself. This is done by the staff and there is an hourly research fee. Lastly, the archdiocesan has a section on its website that lists all of its parishes.

The Scots-Irish and Colonial Wagon Trails

Planes, trains and automobiles are the types of transport that people use today when migrating from Ireland to the United States. But what about in the 18th century? Obviously, they came to the U.S. by ship, but there was still a considerable distance to cover to reach their final destination.

An excellent article by William Dollarhide, Get On Board the Great Valley Road, outlines the history and geography of colonial wagon trails that linked the ports of the east coast to the then interior of the Carolinas and Virginia. The mostly Scots-Irish immigrants from Ireland would have used these trails to reach their destinations.

Colonial routes of the eastern U.S. 

The article further discusses how a knowledge of these routes, and which counties they passed through, is a useful methodological approach for tracing ancestors who traveled them. 

It is also a very good example of how the opening of a new route across mountains can influence the port of choice for immigrants. In this article you will see that Philadelphia was the destination of choice. Once the Pioneer Road opened further to the south across the Blue Ridge Mountains, then Alexandria, VA became an important port for the Scots-Irish. You can read the article here.