Foreign Fare - Finding the Irish Abroad
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The Irish have got about a bit, sometimes through choice, sometimes through necessity. Today the "Irish Diaspora" are a much courted segment as ancestral tourism is heavily marketed as a way of encouraging them to return to their roots and enrich the emerald coffers.
Notwithstanding the long-running myth/joke (delete as you see fit) that if every American who claims to be descended from Irish emigrants were telling the truth then Ireland must have been standing room only in the 18th and 19th century, Irish emigration to the "New World" in particular is well documented. I would go so far to say that it would be unusual to find no Irish relatives popping up in America, Canada, New Zealand and Australia in your family tree.
India also claimed the attention of many Irishmen, often as soldiers in the colonial armies. And don't forget Scotland - just across the Irish Sea and a source of seasonal labouring income and later a home to many Famine refugees.
All the usual suspects, both free to view like FamilySearch and subscription based like Ancestry and FindMyPast have worldwide collections of records in which you should be able to trace emigrant ancestors and I'm not going to try to document them all in these pages. Instead, I'm going to pick out a few more unusual ones in which I've had success finding Irish abroad and give you my tips for working these sources together. So, explore the foreign fare dished up by country in the pages highlighted in green above and introduce your geneaographical taste buds to some new flavours!
Notwithstanding the long-running myth/joke (delete as you see fit) that if every American who claims to be descended from Irish emigrants were telling the truth then Ireland must have been standing room only in the 18th and 19th century, Irish emigration to the "New World" in particular is well documented. I would go so far to say that it would be unusual to find no Irish relatives popping up in America, Canada, New Zealand and Australia in your family tree.
India also claimed the attention of many Irishmen, often as soldiers in the colonial armies. And don't forget Scotland - just across the Irish Sea and a source of seasonal labouring income and later a home to many Famine refugees.
All the usual suspects, both free to view like FamilySearch and subscription based like Ancestry and FindMyPast have worldwide collections of records in which you should be able to trace emigrant ancestors and I'm not going to try to document them all in these pages. Instead, I'm going to pick out a few more unusual ones in which I've had success finding Irish abroad and give you my tips for working these sources together. So, explore the foreign fare dished up by country in the pages highlighted in green above and introduce your geneaographical taste buds to some new flavours!
(c) Irish Geneaography - 2020
