"American Pie" - the Irish in the US
Photo from wellcome collection
Life, Love and Death in New York
New York was undoubtedly the gateway to a new life in America for perhaps the majority of Irish emigrants, many of whom went no further, although Boston can also lay claim to a huge Irish diaspora. Many Irish also found their way to these Eastern Seaboard cities and others via Canadian ports as the voyages may have been cheaper, so be sure to check any passenger manifests and immigration documents north of the border too.
Unfortunately, many of the young men fleeing Ireland in the wake of the Great Hunger ran slap bang into the brewing discontent between the North and the South that led to civil war. I learned lots about them from a hugely informative talk by Damien Shiels on the Irish in the American Civil War. In addition to revealing the existence of a veritable gold mine of information lurking in the Civil War pension files in Washington for the families back in Ireland of those who died or were wounded in the war, he also painted a vivid picture of Irish life in New York around this time when Manhattan in particular was a real Irish ghetto and conscription into the army for many young Irish men happened virtually as the boats docked.
Stephen Morse's One-Stop Webpages should be your first port of call to query the various linked databases for immigration records and births, marriages and deaths (BMD) in the city, and other locations in the US. Some of his links might take you to subscription sites but many are free.
If you find a candidate on the One-Stop pages that lists a certificate number, then be sure to head over to the New York City Historical Vital Records to see if they have digitised the certificate yet. Launched in March 2022, the work is ongoing, so don't get overly frustrated if you get a "No Results" response to your search. Their Digital Vital Records page will give you all the current information on what survives and what has been digitised (approx. 70% complete as of March 2022.) There is a name search function as well but by their own admission this is beta at the moment and the indexing needs some further work - I found a couple of relatives eventually hiding behind transcription errors and there should be a function to report such things in the future. This is a great free site for finally tracking down those Irish relatives who moved across the pond to marry, start new families and perhaps pass away in the Big Apple!
New York was undoubtedly the gateway to a new life in America for perhaps the majority of Irish emigrants, many of whom went no further, although Boston can also lay claim to a huge Irish diaspora. Many Irish also found their way to these Eastern Seaboard cities and others via Canadian ports as the voyages may have been cheaper, so be sure to check any passenger manifests and immigration documents north of the border too.
Unfortunately, many of the young men fleeing Ireland in the wake of the Great Hunger ran slap bang into the brewing discontent between the North and the South that led to civil war. I learned lots about them from a hugely informative talk by Damien Shiels on the Irish in the American Civil War. In addition to revealing the existence of a veritable gold mine of information lurking in the Civil War pension files in Washington for the families back in Ireland of those who died or were wounded in the war, he also painted a vivid picture of Irish life in New York around this time when Manhattan in particular was a real Irish ghetto and conscription into the army for many young Irish men happened virtually as the boats docked.
Stephen Morse's One-Stop Webpages should be your first port of call to query the various linked databases for immigration records and births, marriages and deaths (BMD) in the city, and other locations in the US. Some of his links might take you to subscription sites but many are free.
If you find a candidate on the One-Stop pages that lists a certificate number, then be sure to head over to the New York City Historical Vital Records to see if they have digitised the certificate yet. Launched in March 2022, the work is ongoing, so don't get overly frustrated if you get a "No Results" response to your search. Their Digital Vital Records page will give you all the current information on what survives and what has been digitised (approx. 70% complete as of March 2022.) There is a name search function as well but by their own admission this is beta at the moment and the indexing needs some further work - I found a couple of relatives eventually hiding behind transcription errors and there should be a function to report such things in the future. This is a great free site for finally tracking down those Irish relatives who moved across the pond to marry, start new families and perhaps pass away in the Big Apple!
"Read All About it!"
Depending upon your subscription, Ancestry may also occasionally throw up suggested records from the various collections of marriages and obituaries that it has indexed from the vast library of American titles on its sister site, Newspapers.com. You may find clues as to "lost" Irish relatives who emigrated and started new families or had new adventures. You can learn quite a lot from the sometimes mangled family information "scraped" from the newspaper into the Ancestry index record, but you will have to a go to the
subscription web site, to learn more and clip an image of the page. Investigate subscriptions or take advantage of any free trials or sessions which are often offered over American public holiday weekends.
It's not all births, marriages and deaths of course - take your time to have a good roam around and you may learn some amazingly diverting things about your relatives - my 5th cousin 1xremoved's open water swimming exploits in shark infested Pacific waters being a case in point!
Another recent free find is Chronicling America - Historic American Newspapers, made available from the Library of Congress. This site currently boasts over 19 million pages of newsprint with titles across all states from 1777 to 1963. I've yet to have a really good play with the Advanced Search screen, but it looks promising. At the very least, I'm sure you could spend many an hour highly diverted by all the local gossip!
Depending upon your subscription, Ancestry may also occasionally throw up suggested records from the various collections of marriages and obituaries that it has indexed from the vast library of American titles on its sister site, Newspapers.com. You may find clues as to "lost" Irish relatives who emigrated and started new families or had new adventures. You can learn quite a lot from the sometimes mangled family information "scraped" from the newspaper into the Ancestry index record, but you will have to a go to the
subscription web site, to learn more and clip an image of the page. Investigate subscriptions or take advantage of any free trials or sessions which are often offered over American public holiday weekends.
It's not all births, marriages and deaths of course - take your time to have a good roam around and you may learn some amazingly diverting things about your relatives - my 5th cousin 1xremoved's open water swimming exploits in shark infested Pacific waters being a case in point!
Another recent free find is Chronicling America - Historic American Newspapers, made available from the Library of Congress. This site currently boasts over 19 million pages of newsprint with titles across all states from 1777 to 1963. I've yet to have a really good play with the Advanced Search screen, but it looks promising. At the very least, I'm sure you could spend many an hour highly diverted by all the local gossip!
1st 1870 US census taken on 24th June
1870 NY Federal Census ... so much fun, they did it twice?
Well no actually, but take it from me and watch out for this little curve ball in any search results you get back from US census collections for this year (Ancestry has them under their worldwide subscription.) Apparently, New Yorkers were not happy with the census that was done at the same time as the rest of the US in June 1870 as they believed the city's population had been underestimated. So they decided to go through it all over again in January 1871! Hence you might get back 2 records that look almost identical but not quite - study both carefully and make up your mind as to what to believe in either version! And of course, be sure to record the information from the second attempt with the different date, 6 months later. Note, too that although it took place in January 1871, all the records and images are still bundled together with the rest of the 1870 US census.
1870 NY Federal Census ... so much fun, they did it twice?
Well no actually, but take it from me and watch out for this little curve ball in any search results you get back from US census collections for this year (Ancestry has them under their worldwide subscription.) Apparently, New Yorkers were not happy with the census that was done at the same time as the rest of the US in June 1870 as they believed the city's population had been underestimated. So they decided to go through it all over again in January 1871! Hence you might get back 2 records that look almost identical but not quite - study both carefully and make up your mind as to what to believe in either version! And of course, be sure to record the information from the second attempt with the different date, 6 months later. Note, too that although it took place in January 1871, all the records and images are still bundled together with the rest of the 1870 US census.
2nd attempt using repurposed forms just over 6 months later
Townland of Origin ... so much more than the title suggests!
Although he hasn't updated the site in several years due to other commitments, Joe Buggy's Townland of Origin archived website is still a fantastic resource for all things genealogical in not just the US of A but also Canada, another very important destination for Irish emigrants. In addition to his well-written and informative blog articles, you will find details of his publications ("Finding your Irish Ancestors in New York City" looks like the definitive guide on the subject) and his own favourite links and tips.
Joe has also collaborated with another generous Irish genie, Shane Wilson, to create a great free resource for searching multiple Irish trade directories - see my Historical Directories page for more details.
Although he hasn't updated the site in several years due to other commitments, Joe Buggy's Townland of Origin archived website is still a fantastic resource for all things genealogical in not just the US of A but also Canada, another very important destination for Irish emigrants. In addition to his well-written and informative blog articles, you will find details of his publications ("Finding your Irish Ancestors in New York City" looks like the definitive guide on the subject) and his own favourite links and tips.
Joe has also collaborated with another generous Irish genie, Shane Wilson, to create a great free resource for searching multiple Irish trade directories - see my Historical Directories page for more details.
Navigating the US Library and Genealogical Society Scene
I recently watched a talk posted online from Rootstech 2018 which was given by Curt Witcher from the Allen County Library, Fort Wayne, Indiana. Entitled "Pain in the Access : More Web for your genealogy", Curt showcases, in his own uniquely entertaining style, all the wonderful and mostly free online resources to be found at various different levels within the US county and state library and archive network. County level genealogical societies were also a bit of revelation to me and given that Irish immigrants were often true pioneers of the West, you never know what you might turn up if you go digging online for the treasure he talks about.
Incidentally, the Allen County Library is also a generous donor of free digitised texts to the Internet Archive and I've found many that relate to Ireland - searching with "Allen County Library Ireland" revealed over 600 volumes at the last count.
I recently watched a talk posted online from Rootstech 2018 which was given by Curt Witcher from the Allen County Library, Fort Wayne, Indiana. Entitled "Pain in the Access : More Web for your genealogy", Curt showcases, in his own uniquely entertaining style, all the wonderful and mostly free online resources to be found at various different levels within the US county and state library and archive network. County level genealogical societies were also a bit of revelation to me and given that Irish immigrants were often true pioneers of the West, you never know what you might turn up if you go digging online for the treasure he talks about.
Incidentally, the Allen County Library is also a generous donor of free digitised texts to the Internet Archive and I've found many that relate to Ireland - searching with "Allen County Library Ireland" revealed over 600 volumes at the last count.
(c) Irish Geneaography - 2023
