U.S. Census Series: Milwaukee, Wisconsin 1860

The city of Milwaukee had a population of just over 62,200 when the 1860 U.S. Federal Census was enumerated.[1] Of this number, Irish-born residents account for about 8.6% of the population at circa 5,375.[2] The county of birth was recorded for 562 of those people from Ireland. The numbers for each county are contained in the table below. Clare, Galway, Kilkenny and Meath were the counties that had the highest number of such instances recorded.

All instances of the Irish county of origin were for immigrants who lived in the 4th ward of the city. The census enumerator, or Assistant Marshall to use the correct terminology, for this part of Milwaukee was Maven Power. Maven was a lawyer who lived in the Town of Lake, Milwaukee County.  His entry in the 1860 U.S. Federal Census noted that he was born in the state of New York about 1819.[3] Also residing with him at the time was 31 year old Adelaide Powers, presumably his wife, and 18 year old Mary Kelly, a house servant, also born in the state of New York. It is very likely that Maven's Power ancestors were from Ireland and this could be a reason why he noted the counties of birth for some of those that he enumerated.

County	Approx No. of Entries[4]
Clare	91
Galway	76
Kilkenny	59
Meath	51
Kerry	42
Tipperary	42
Cavan	28
Tyrone	24
Offaly (Kings)	22
Waterford	16
Mayo	16
Roscommon	15
Dublin	15
Sligo	11
Carlow	10
Down	9
Longford[5]	8
Laois (Queens)	6
Cork	6
Armagh	3
Monaghan (Monahan)	3
Westmeath	3
Fermanagh	2
Limerick	2
Derry	1
Wicklow	1
Leitrim	0
Donegal	0
Antrim	0
Kildare	0
Louth	0
Wexford	0
TOTAL	562

Table: Instances of Irish county of origin in 1860 U.S. Federal Census, 

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

The page below (click to view larger version) from the census enumeration shows the variation of places of birth for people who lived closely together in just seven houses - Galway, Mayo, Waterford, Carlow, Kings (Offaly) and Kilkenny are all represented.[6]

Irish counties of origin in 1860 U.S. Federal Census,  Milwaukee, Wisconsin

The 4th ward likely attracted Irish immigrants due to its proximity to jobs on the Milwaukee River and the railroad. A map of the city from 1856 shows the location of the 4th ward on the west bank of the river with the Milwaukee and Mississippi Railroad running through the southern section of the ward (click to view larger version).[7] The legacy of this Irish area of Milwaukee can be seen in a later map from 1874 as there is a street in the 4th ward called Hibernia.[8]

Section of Lapham's Map of Milwaukee showing 4th ward

I'd like to thank commenter cmkinhunter for directing me towards this example back in May. See the Census Series section for other instances of Irish place of origin recorded in the U.S. Federal Census.

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[1] Manual tabulation based on numbers at: https://familysearch.org/search/collection/results?count=75&query=%2Bresidence_place%3A%22milwaukee%2C%20wisconsin%22&collection_id=1473181 

[2] Manual tabulation based on numbers at: https://familysearch.org/search/collection/results?count=75&query=%2Bbirth_place%3Aireland%20%2Bresidence_place%3A%22milwaukee%2C%20wisconsin%22&collection_id=1473181

[3] Fold3.com, 1860 U.S. Federal Census, Milwaukee County, Lake, population schedule, Town of Lake, Page 78, House 597, family 597, Maven Power and family; digital image, Fold3.com http://www.fold3.com: accessed 26 September 2015; citing NARA microfilm publication M653, roll 21250.

[4] All totals are approximates based on a manual search of county names. It is possible that some towns were listed instead of county names.

[5] The index gives 10 returns for Longford but two of these are for 'Long Ireland' and upon inspecting the census documents they were for people from Long Island (New York State).

[6] Fold3.com, 1860 U.S. Federal Census, Milwaukee County, Milwaukee, population schedule, City of Milwaukee, Page 67, House 497-505, families 503-511; digital image, Fold3.com http://www.fold3.com: accessed 26 September 2015; citing NARA microfilm publication M653, roll 21253.

[7] Lapham, I.A. 1856. Map of Milwaukee. New York, NY:  Sherman and Smith. Available online http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~1954~190067:Map-Of-Milwaukee-?sort=pub_list_no_initialsort%2Cpub_date%2Cpub_list_no%2Cseries_no#: accessed 26 September 2015

[8] Mithcell, SA. 1874. Plan of Milwaukee. Philadelphia, PA:  S.A. Mitchell Jr. Available online http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~254634~5519457:Plan-of-Milwaukee?sort=pub_list_no_initialsort%2Cpub_date%2Cpub_list_no%2Cseries_no: accessed 26 September 2015

Irish Ancestors In Texas

The latest edition of Irish Lives Remembered genealogy magazine is out and in this edition I wrote about researching your Irish ancestors in Texas. Access here.

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.

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[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.

Online U.S. Catholic Parish Registers

Widespread access to online Catholic Church parish register records in the U.S. is still but a pipedream. A few blog posts could easily be written about the realities of why this is so, but that is a story for another day. Instead, I've decided to be positive and gather together in one place all of the online Catholic Church records that I'm aware of.

Sadly, the list is short, especially when you consider the thousands of parishes that exist across the United States. Please post a comment if you know of any I have missed and I'll add them to the list.

Another access method for Catholic parish registers that is sometimes not considered is microfilms from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. Eventually, all of their microfilms will be on Familysearch.org, but until that point is reached they remain a great way to access these records.

For example, see the list of registers for the state of New Jersey on the Familysearch Catalog (use Ctrl+F/Command+F Catholic to quickly highlight the relevant microfilms).

Access and Format Key

S - Scanned

I - Indexed

NI - Not Indexed

T - Transcriptions

State	Diocese	Region/Parishes Covered	Years	Access & Format
California	Sacremento	St. Joseph's Catholic Cemetery, Woodland, Yolo County	1883-1939	Familysearch Books (S) *
Colorado	Denver	St. Mary's Catholic Parish, Littleton	1915-1985	Familysearch Books (S) **
Delaware	Wilmington	Delaware and Eastern Shore Maryland on Delmarva Peninsula	1795-1925	Lalley.com (S/NI)
Illinois	Archdiocese of Chicago	City of Chicago and surrounding area	1833-1925	Familysearch (S/I)
Illinois	Belleville	South East Ohio / County map of parishes	1729-1956	Familysearch (S/NI)
Indiana	Rockford	St. Michael's Parish, Daviess County	1887-1916	Archive.org (S)
Indiana	Rockford	St. Michael's Parish, Daviess County	1887-1916	Familysearch Books (S)***
Maryland	Wilmington	Delaware and Eastern Shore Maryland on Delmarva Peninsula	1795-1925	Lalley.com (S/NI)
New Jersey	Archdiocese of Newark	St. Peter's Parish, Belville Immaculate Conception Parish, Montclair	1839-1899	NYC Nuts (T/I)
New Jersey	Archdiocese of Newark	Various Parishes	19th Century	Familysearch (T/I)****
New York	Brooklyn	Our Lady of Sorrow Parish, Bushwick St. Leonards of Port Maurice, Bushwick Most Holy Trinity, Williamsburg	1842-1978	German Genealogy Group (T/I)
New York	Brooklyn	St Paul's Parish	1837-1900	Ancestry: here & here (T/I)
Ohio	Toledo	North west Ohio	1796-2004	Familysearch (S/NI) Ancestry (S/NI)
Pennsylvania	Archdiocese of Philadelphia	Philadelphia and south east Pennsylvania	18th & 19th Century	Hathi Trust (S/T)

* Search for: "Burial register, St. Joseph's Catholic Cemetery, Woodland, Yolo Co., California"

** Search for: " St. Mary's Catholic Church, 1915-1985, of Littleton Colorado"

*** Records are contained within the database New Jersey, Births and Christenings, 1660-1980

**** Search for: "Register of St. Michael Catholic Church, Daviess County, Indiana"

Emigration And The Single Woman

@RTÉArchives is a very interesting twitter account to follow to learn about Ireland over the last 50 years. Last week, they tweeted about a 1995 Radharc documentary called Emigration and the Single Woman. This clip discussed the Mission of Our Lady of the Rosary for the Protection of the Irish Immigrant Girls that existed in New York City in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The records of this organizations are digitized and available for free online. They were quietly released in March 2014, of which you can read more about in my post from when they went online. Researching in them is a must if you have female immigrants from Ireland who came to New York during that time period.

Emigration and the Single Woman, from Radharc via RTÉ Archives.

Click here or here to read Townland of Origin posts about how other Radharc documentaries can help with genealogy. 

The New Catholic Parish Registers Website And Ne Temere

Unless you have been under a rock for the last two weeks, you will know all about The National Library of Ireland's brand new website for Catholic parish registers. Simply put, it's a joy to use. There has been plenty of coverage all about it so there is no need for me to rehash it all. So what can researchers in the U.S. and Canada get from the website? Well, the most obvious benefit is free, unlimited access to digitized images of the registers. That's a no brainer.

Beyond that, there are some other benefits that will be of particular use to researchers who are tracing immigrant Irish ancestors. Genealogy research is all about trying to get original records, or if that is not possible, a photocopy, picture, or digital scan of the record; it allows a researcher to see all that has been written on the document. This includes all the necessary information needed to create the document and any possible notations, later amendments or commentary that has been added by the record creator or another party. Having access to digital scans of the Catholic register microfilms allows a researcher to do this.

This ability can be very useful when we consider the possibility of Ne Temere positively impacting on our research. Ne Temere was a decree of Catholic matrimonial law in relation to marriage, with one part stipulating that all marriages must be registered in the place or places where the contracting parties were baptized.[1] With Ne Temere coming into force in 1908, conceivably, it can be expected that such register amendments will be found from about 1848 to 1890, if a person who is born in Ireland gets married in the U.S./Canada between the ages of 18 and 60.

Some examples of this are evident in the registers. The following entry is found in the baptismal registers of Kilmore Erris parish in County Mayo:

Married John Naggius [?] 27 June 1928 in St Paul's Cathedral, Pittsburgh USA

13 [February 1870] Mary Barrett [daughter of] Richard [and] Peg Murphy [from] Cross [townland]; [Sponsors] Tom Barrett [and] Ellen Do [Ditto, therefore Barrett][2]

Another example comes from Keel parish in County Kerry:

15 [Septembris 1878] Idem bapt Juliaus f. leg. Thomas Griffin et

matrimonius _____ est ___ Ioanne Hennessy ____ S. Benan ___ New York ___ 20 Julius 1910

Julia Duggan Sp Ioannes Flynn et Maria McElligott[3]

[15 September 1878; the same, baptism, legitimate daughter of Thomas Griffin

Marriage ____ of __ John Hennessy ____ S. Benan ___ New York ___ 20 July 1910
and Julia Duggan; sponsors John Flynn and Maria McElligott]

With this example, the proof of this later addition can be seen in the index for marriage records from New York City[4]

Other interesting notations that can provide possible clues about immigration to the U.S. are also evident, such as this example, also from Kilmore Erris parish:

                                    America
16 [December 1860] Wm [?] Dixon [son of] Rodger [and] Bridget Kilcar [from] Tip [? townland]; [Sponsors] Pat Dixon & Mary McDonald[5]

If you come across a relevant entry in the registers, make sure to examine closely around it and elsewhere on the page for such notations and additions.

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[1] Galles, Duane. "Roman Catholic Church Records and the Genealogist." National Genealogical Society Quarterly. No. 74 (December 1986). p 272.
[2] Kilmore Erris Parish (Mayo, Ireland), Baptisms 24 June 1860-13 May 1881, unnumbered, p.6, William Dixon, 16 December 1860; digital image, Catholic Parish Registers at the NLI  http://registers.nli.ie/registers/vtls000634629#page/33/mode/1up: accessed 18 July 2015.

[3] Keel Parish (Kerry, Ireland), Baptisms 1 March 1845-7 November 1880, unnumbered, p.155, Julia Griffin, 15 September 1879; digital image, Catholic Parish Registers at the NLI http://registers.nli.ie/registers/vtls000634275#page/155/mode/1up: accessed 18 July 2015.

[4] New York City, NYC Grooms Record Index, Grooms Database 1908-1937, John J Hennessy  and Julia A Griffin, 20 July 1910; index entry, Italian Genealogical Group  http://italiangen.org/records-search/grooms.php: accessed 18 July 2015.

[5]Kilmore Erris Parish (Mayo, Ireland), Baptisms 24 June 1860-13 May 1881, unnumbered, p.33, Mary Barrett, 13 February 1870; digital image, Catholic Parish Registers at the NLI http://registers.nli.ie/registers/vtls000634629#page/6/mode/1up: accessed 18 July 2015.

Tracing The Irish In Missouri

The July/August edition of Irish Lives Remembered magazine is out and in this issue I've written about Irish genealogy research in Missouri. Click here to access this free magazine.