The Irish settled over the generations in many different places. The United States is talked about a lot (sometimes even on this blog) but there are other places many Irish emigrated to. One place is Canada.
A few Irish landed in Canada (then known as British North America) in the 17th century, mainly settling in Newfoundland from Waterford and Wexford. The majority of Irish arrived in the 18th century.
Reasons for this migration include advertisements offering 200 acres of land in Canada if emigrate. This was a ploy by the ship merchants to return to Canada with a ship full of passengers instead of an empty ship after removing their cargo. It was also a ploy by the British government to relieve what they thought was an over population of Irish in Ireland.
Many settlers came over from the Ulster area. Later, in the early 1800s, many from the southern counties of Clare, Cork, and Limerick arrived. (See the Ships List website for more information). Most of the northern Irish settlers settled around the “New Dublin” area. The southern Irish created a settlement in Peterborough, Ontario.
As momentum increased, more than 34,000 Irish arrived in Quebec in the early 1800s. By the time of the Great Famine (1846-52), over 500,000 arrived with another 500,000 or more in the years that followed.
It is during this time period that many of those immigrating to Canada arrived on ships (called “coffin” ships) dying and sick. Grosse Isle, Canada’s equivalent to New York’s Castle Garden at the time, saw an influx of typhus-related sick and dying. For example, in 1847 over 84,000 immigrants arrived. (We will discuss coffin ships in a future post).
These ships were over crowded with one-sixth of the passengers dying on the voyage over. Grosse Isle was not equipped to handle so many arrivals. For those that did survive, they settled in many area of Canada, especially the eastern portion of the country. Some left Canada and arrived in the United States.
Some Resources to Research Your Irish Canadian Ancestors
Remember that there was no requirement to keep passenger lists in Canada until 1865. There was no set recording method either. Not all the lists are available.
Ancestry has many immigration records including:
• Border Crossing Lists: From Canada to the USA 1895-1956
• Border Crossing Lists: From the USA to Canada 1908-1935
• Great Lakes Passenger Lists
• Canadian Passenger Lists: From Ireland and England to Canada 1865-1935.
The Library and Archives of Canada has Canadian Censuses from 1861-1911 (free online) plus:
• Grosse Isle Quarantine Station 1832-1837
• Immigrants from Ireland & Britain: Pre 1865
• Quebec City Passengers: 1865-1922.
FamilySearch has the Canadian Census from 1861 to 1901 as well plus Canadian birth, marriage and death records, and Canadian Passenger Lists for various ports.
FamilyFinders