The Old Stone Bank

The records of the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank of New York City are some of the best when it comes to helping a researcher find where their ancestors came from in Ireland. Financial and banking records in other states can also be just as useful if two criteria are met: (i) the bank had a system to prove a customer’s identity by asking a series of biographical questions to which it had the answers, already supplied by the customer, and (ii) the records of the institution have survived to this day. In Rhode Island, there is such a set of records.

The Providence Institution for Savings was founded in Providence, Rhode Island in 1819. The institution’s original building was destroyed in 1837. After seventeen years in temporary headquarters a new building was constructed at 86 South Main Street in 1854, which was expanded in 1898 into its present form. Since the construction of the domed building in 1854, the bank had been unofficially known as the "Old Stone Bank". The name was officially changed to Old Stone Savings Bank in 1967. This corporation was absorbed by Citizens Bank in 1993 after 174 years of service.[1]

The records of the Old Stone Savings Bank were acquired by the Rhode Island Historical Society (RIHS) and have been arranged by series. The series of greatest general interest is Series 8, the Signature Books, containing 29 large volumes. From 1844 to 1857, the books include only signatures with occasional comments. In 1857, the depositor's residence began to be recorded. As of 1863, these volumes recorded name, residence, occupation and remarks. Birthplace and age began to be recorded systematically in 1882. Marital status and names of parents were added in 1890. The books come to a halt in 1897.[2]

Local historian Raymond McKenna has worked extensively in these records and also maintains the website Federal Hill Irish, which is all about Irish immigrants in Providence, RI. He has compiled a listing of almost 2,000 surnames from the signature books and what counties in Ireland the people with those names came from.[3]

The records are not digitized but are available for research at the RIHS library, located at 121 Hope Street, Providence, RI 02906. You can read more about the collection by searching for 'Old Stone Bank Records' in the RIHS online catalog.

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[1] Rick Staller. 2006. Old Stone Bank Records. Available online via Rhode Island Historical Society Catalog at http://rihs.minisisinc.com: accessed 23 April 2017.

[2] Ibid.

[3] McKenna, Raymond. Irish Surnames in Rhode Island & the Irish Counties They Represent. Federal Hill Irish. 20 November 2014. Available online at http://federalhillirish.com/2014/11/irish-surnames-in-rhode-island-the-irish-counties-they-represent: accessed 23 April 2017.

Irish Emigration to New England Through The Port of Saint John

Saint John, New Brunswick is a port city that Irish immigrants have used since the 18th century as a gateway to North America. Located on the Atlantic seaboard, it provides for easy access to a wide range of Canadian and American locations. During The Famine, thousands of Irish immigrants arrived at Saint John. Tracing Famine arrivals is difficult at the best of time so it is great to have Irish Emigration to New England through the Port of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, 1841 to 1849 to assist research efforts.

First published in 1996 (then re-published in 1997 and 2004) and written by Daniel Johnson, it is a compendium of extracts from the records of various institutions in Saint John County, New Brunswick. They include hospitals, asylums and workhouses, along with information gleaned from the journeys of the immigrants, their receiving of outdoor relief, and where they might have lived or temporarily resided in Saint John County.

Interesting examples abound in the publication. Names derived from a "Catalogue of immigrants from the United Kingdom relieved on parish poor accounts and not charged to the immigrant account year 1842," a document at the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, are accompanied by Irish counties of nativity. Patrick May, 58, from County Kilkenny, [condition] sick and asmatick [sic]; William Freil, 76, from County Donegal, blind and feeble; and Barbara Ford, 47, from County Leitrim, dropsical [sic], are just three examples.[1]

Records for the year 1841 in the temporary lunatic asylum also have detailed information. Catherine Coyle, 33, and John Clougher, 26, both from County Roscommon, were two of the people admitted on 1 May 1841. Mary was discharged five months later but John was still there in 1844.[2]

It is often forgotten that Canadian ports were used to immigrate when the final destination was in the United States, hence the name of the publication. Therefore, don't discount this important work if you are researching Famine immigrants in Massachusetts, Vermont or elsewhere in New England. The book is also available in digitized format via the database 'Irish Emigration to New England through the Port of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, 1841 to 1849' on Ancestry.

Click here for a long list of other sources to do with New Brunswick that I have written about.

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[1] Johnson Daniel F. Irish Emigration to New England through the Port of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, 1841 to 1849. Genealogical Publishing Company: Baltimore, Maryland. pp. 15-16; digital image, Irish Emigration to New England through the Port of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, 1841 to 1849," Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com), accessed 3 December 2016.

[2] Johnson Daniel F. Irish Emigration to New England through the Port of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, 1841 to 1849. Genealogical Publishing Company: Baltimore, Maryland. p. 13; digital image, Irish Emigration to New England through the Port of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, 1841 to 1849," Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com), accessed 3 December 2016.

New England Petitions for Naturalization Index, 1791-1906

Naturalization records are fundamental documents to  obtains when it comes to researching the life of an immigrant in the United States. There are a number of large databases of indexes to naturalization records available online, one of which is New England Petitions for Naturalization Index, 1791-1906. New England is a region of the U.S. that contains the states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. All of these states saw the arrival of large numbers of Irish immigrants in the 19th century.

This database was originally created in the late 1930s by the Works Progress/Projects Administration.[1] In total, it contains over 600,000 index cards for immigrants who naturalized. Around 25% of these people were born in Ireland.[2]

Working out the court where an ancestor naturalized, particularly if they moved a lot or lived in a large urban area, can be one of the main stumbling blocks to obtaining naturalization records. The usefulness of this index is that the cards list the court that granted the naturalization certificate, along with the volume and page number of the naturalization record.[3] 

To obtain the original records, you will need to find out where that court currently stores its naturalization records. Don't forget that they may have been digitized and placed online, be available on microfilm at an institution such as the Family History Library, or at the National Archives Northeast Region in Boston. 

This index database is available on the big three genealogy websites.

• Ancestry - U.S. Naturalization Record Indexes, 1791-1992 (Indexed in World Archives Project)  
• Familysearch - United States, New England Petitions for Naturalization Index, 1791-1906
• Findmypast - New England Naturalizations, 1791-1906

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[1] Index To New England Naturalization Records, 1791-1906. Washington, D.C: National Archives and Records Administration. n.d. p. 1. Available online at https://www.archives.gov/research/microfilm/m1299.pdf: accessed 13 March 2016.

[2] This number is based on my own tabulation of a non-exact search using Ireland as the place of birth. The total was 156,667. Using an exact search for Ireland returned the same number. Some of the returns say 'Great Britain or Ireland' as the place of birth. It is also likely that some of those whose birthplace was recorded as 'Britain' or 'Great Britain' were born in Ireland.

[3] Index To New England Naturalization Records, 1791-1906. Washington, D.C: National Archives and Records Administration. n.d. p. 1. Available online at https://www.archives.gov/research/microfilm/m1299.pdf: accessed 13 March 2016.

Chronicling America Newspaper Database

Chronicling America is a website providing access to information about historic newspapers and select digitized newspaper pages, and is produced by the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP). NDNP is a partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress .[1]

In total, almost 9.5 million pages of digitized newspapers are currently available view. One of the most useful features on the website is the US Newspaper Directory, 1690-Present. This database contains information for over 153,000 newspapers that were published in the U.S. since the 17^th century. You can use many different filter options to search the database, one of which is ethnicity. Using the ‘Irish’ option gives a return of 127 titles. The majority of the titles are from the state of New York, however, in total, newspapers from 16 states are listed. They are:

Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Missouri, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Virginia

The span of years and cities they cover range from the brief to the broad. Some interesting examples include:

The Irish Pennsylvanian (Pittsburg, PA), 1890-1921

The Northwestern Standard (Minneapolis, MN), 1885-1886

The A.O.H. Journal (Richmond, VA), 1878-1881

Just one of these 127 newspapers is digitized and available to view on the website. It is the Kentucky Irish American and you can search editions from 1898-1921.

Chronicling America website

US Newspaper Directory, 1690-Present

List of ethnic Irish newspapers in the directory

You can read other blog posts about newspapers relevant to Irish genealogy research by selecting the ‘newspaper’ label at the end of this post.

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[1] Chroniclingamerica.gov. About Chronicling America. Year Unknown. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/about: accessed 5 May 2015.

County Clare Records From The U.S.

Over the last number of years there has been an awaking in Ireland in relation to researching the lives of the millions of people who emigrated over the last number of centuries. Some of the best research in this area is being carried by historians such as Damian Shiels and Dr. Ciaran Reilly. The Ireland Reaching Out (XO) organizations was also set up to focus on the idea of 'reverse genealogy' - harvesting the local knowledge in Ireland about those who emigrated so as to connect with their descendants all over the world.

At a local level, the Clare County Library is leading the way with their efforts to provide transcriptions of genealogy records that concern emigrants from Clare. Some of the collections they have made available included:

Those who immigrated to the U.S. through Ellis Island, divided by parish of origin (55+ parishes).

Those who naturalized in various New England states (almost 600 records)

Those who applied for U.S. passports (39 records)

Those who arrived in the U.S. through Philadelphia, Boston, Detroit, and California (150+ records)

Have family stories been passed down to you about your ancestors possibly being from Co. Clare? Are you researching ancestors with names that are often found in the county, such as Hickey, McNamara, (O') Dea, Kett, Thynne, or Hehir? If so you might find some joy in these records.

Access here.

U.S. Naval Enlistment Records

United States Naval Enlistment Rendezvous, 1855-1891 is a record set that gives an Irish county or town of birth for almost 4,500 Irish immigrants. "A rendezvous was the recruiting station where the men enlisted in the Navy. Officers at the rendezvous kept a record of each man enlisted and reported the information weekly to the Navy Department. These documents are known as the 'weekly returns of rendezvous reports.'"[1] These recruiting stations were located all over the U.S., for example: Mare Island and San Francisco (California); Baltimore (Maryland); Boston (Massachusetts); Saint Louis (Missouri); Portsmouth (New Hampshire); New York (New York); Erie, League Island, and Philadelphia (Pennsylvania); Newport (Rhode Island); Hampton Roads and Norfolk (Virginia).

A lot of useful genealogical information can be found in these records, including: name of naval rendezvous, name of new recruit, date and term of enlistment, rating (rank), name of ship to which assigned, previous naval service, city and state where born, age, occupation, and personal description. For example, in Saint Louis, Missouri, on 29 October 1862, Lawrence Fitzpatrick enlisted as a seaman for general service for the remainder of the Civil War. He was a 33 year old laborer, who was born in Co. Galway. He had brown eyes and hair, a light complexion, and was 5 feet 8 inches tall.[2]

Lawrence Fitzpatrick Enlistment, 1862 (Click to enlarge)

Men from Dublin and Cork make up almost half of this records set, with Donegal, Derry/Londonderry, Galway, Limerick, Tipperary, and Waterford all having strong representations.

County	No. of records*
Dublin	1,125
Cork	773
Donegal	305
Derry/Londonderry	291
Galway	290
Limerick	273
Tipperary	213
Waterford	210
Kerry	90
Tyrone	86
Kilkenny	78
Sligo	73
Wexford	64
Antrim	62
Armagh	58
Roscommon	58
Mayo	54
Cavan	45
Longford	35
Monaghan	34
Down	30
Clare	28
Wicklow	24
Leitrim	23
Kildare	23
Westmeath	20
Louth	20
Fermanagh	15
Laois/Queens	14
Meath	14
Offaly/Kings	10
Carlow	9
County not specified, place is	50 (approx)
TOTAL	4,496

These records are available on a number of the main genealogy websites including Ancestry, Findmypast, and Familysearch. Familysearch has digitized and indexed the records. In total the collection contains over 262,000 records. About 46,000 are for men from Ireland, which means that just under 10% have a specific place of birth in Ireland named on their record.

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

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[1] Familysearch.org. United States Naval Enlistment Rendezvous (FamilySearch Historical Records). 2015.
https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/United_States_Naval_Enlistment_Rendezvous_(FamilySearch_Historical_Records): accessed 21 April 2015.

[2] "United States Naval Enlistment Rendezvous, 1855-1891," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XG3C-M3Y: accessed 21 April 2015), Lawrence Fitzpatrick, Nov 1862; citing p. 478, volume 22, place of enlistment Saint Louis Missouri, NARA microfilm publication M1953 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 19; FHL microfilm 2,381,636.

FMP's Irish Marriage Notices In American Newspapers

In May, Find My Past announced the release of two new record sets, Irish Marriage Notices In American Newspapers and Irish Death Notices in American Newspapers. This post will focus on the collection of marriage notices; my next post, in a few days, will look at the death collection in more detail.

Irish Marriage Notices In American Newspapers contains 2,550 records, taken from four different U.S. newspapers: The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, New York Herald, New York World, and Phoenix. When the record set was released, Irish Genealogy News reported that these notices appeared in the newspapers from 1835 to 1860.

In total, 1,446 notices are for people living in the Unites States. Almost all—1,304—are for marriages in New York. The remaining 1,104 notices are for people outside the U.S., of which the majority—926—are for people in Ireland.

I don't have a Find My Past subscription so unfortunately was unable to look at the actual records and see if Irish places of origin are included for marriages occurring in the U.S. For marriages that occurred in Ireland, it is likely that the place where the marriage took place is included. Scanning through the surname of those in the records shows that many are for Irish immigrants with traditionally English and Scottish names, e.g. Adams, Allen, Brown, Greenswood, Jackson, Stewart, Thompson etc.

However, this is understandable. Firstly, some of the records are from pre-Famine years, and therefore from a time when non-Catholic immigration to the U.S. still made up a significant proportion of overall Irish immigration. Secondly, marriage notices cost money. Irish emigrants who could afford these notices were able to bring some startup capital to the U.S., were generally from a higher social class in Ireland, and were usually from an Anglo-Irish heritage.

MARRIAGES                     2550
________________________
Alabama                               8
California                            14
Connecticut                        4
Illinois                                   4
Indiana                                 2
Louisiana                            10
Maryland                             8
Massachusetts                    6
Missouri                               2
New Jersey                         64
New York                          1304
Pennsylvania                     10
Rhode Island                       2
United States                      60
Virginia                                 4
Washington DC                  2
TOTAL                               1446
_________________________
Ireland                                926
England                               68
Australia                             16
India                                      8
France                                   6
Canada                                  6
Cuba                                       4
Windward Islands           4
Belgium                                2
Italy                                        2
Turkey                                  2
Scotland                                2
TOTAL                              1104

Link to Irish Marriage Notices in American Newspapers database.

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.