Irish Emigrants in North America. Part Seven

Description

Emigration from Ireland to the Americas started in earnest during the early 18th century. In 1718 the first successful emigration from Ireland to New England occurred, laying the foundation for the large-scale settlement of colonial America by the “Scots-Irish.” This work is the seventh installment (and the fourth volume) in a series compiled by Mr. David Dobson that documents the departure of thousands of individuals who left Ireland for the promise of the New World between roughly 1670 and 1830. As many as half of the immigrants referred to here disembarked at Canadian ports in Ontario, while most of the rest entered North America through New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina.

Part Seven is based mainly on archival sources in Canada, Denmark, England, Ireland, Scotland, and the U.S., together with contemporary newspapers and journals, a few published records, and some gravestone inscriptions from both sides of the Atlantic. In the majority of cases, Mr. Dobson’s transcriptions provide some or all of the following: name of passenger, date of birth, name of ship, occupation in Ireland, reason for emigration, and, sometimes, place of origin in Ireland, place of disembarkation in the New World, date of arrival, number of persons in the household, and the source of the information. Here is an entry that is typical of those found in the volume:

LITTLEWOOD, ANN, from Drummond, parish of Tamlaght Finlaggan, emigrated from Londonderry to St. John, New Brunswick, on the 196 ton brig Ambassador in April 1834 [RIA].