Migration

Documents, Land Records, Migration

Upper Canada Land Petitions Online

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I can’t believe these documents are now online (and have been online for a couple of months, apparently — John Reid posted about this on 14 January 2012). Not just the index to the petitions (which index was put online around September 2010, I believe), but now the digitized images of the petitions themselves. 327 microfilms (over 82,000 entries, and thousands upon thousands of pages of text), now readily available to anyone with an internet connection.

Two of my direct ancestors (both 3x-great-grandfathers) can be found on the same page, three lines from the top and five lines from the top, respectively (click image below to see larger version):

  1. Denis Killeen, Irish Emt [Emigrant], Township of March, Concession 3rd, S.E. [Southeast] 1/2 of Lot 11, 100 acres.
  2. James Morin [Moran], Irish Emt [Emigrant], Township of Huntley, Concession 1st, N.W. [Northwest] 1/2 of Lot 11, 100 acres.

Upper Canada Land Petitions, Perth Military Settlement (RG 1, L 3, Vol. 421), Microfilm C-2739, Petition 70, p. 70h.

Actually, perhaps my above “readily available” was a tad hyperbolic.

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Census Records, Migration

Irish (also English and Scottish) Origins, Canadian Sources: William Pigott’s enumeration of Fitzroy township (1851)

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Here are my Moran ancestors in the 1851 census of Huntley township, Carleton County, Ontario (Canada West):

James Morin household, 1851 census of Canada West (Ontario), Carleton County, Huntley, p. 85, lines 44-50.

James Moran (here Morin), Farmer, born Ireland, religion R. [Roman] Catholic, age 54 at next birthday; with wife Margaret [Jamieson], also born Ireland; and children Thos [Thomas], James,1 Mary, Margaret and Alexander (my 2x great-grandfather, who married Mary Ann Leavy), all born Upper Canada.

Place of birth “Ireland” (no Irish county specified) for Irish emigrants to Canada is pretty much the standard for the 1851 (and 1861, 1871, and so on) Canadian census enumeration.

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  1. James Moran, son of James and Margaret Jamieson, had recently died, at the age of 27. His death is listed under column 30 (Deaths during year 1851), with cause of death recorded as “collara” (cholera). ↩

Catholic Records, Migration

Co. Armagh, Ireland to Leeds Co., Ontario, Canada: Some RC Marriage Records

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Looking at a run of marriages recorded from 1852 to 1858 in the parish register for St. Edward’s Roman Catholic Church, Westport, Leeds Co., Ontario, the Armagh presence in North Crosby (Co. Leeds, Ontario) is very much in evidence. Of the six marriages recorded for the year 1852, for example, five of the six identify either the bride or the groom (or both the bride and groom) with a native parish in Armagh. The most frequently cited Armagh parish is that of Forkhill.1

Many of the names below can be found in Kevin Murphy and Una Walsh, A Famine Link: The ‘Hannah’ — South Armagh to Ontario (Mullaghbane Community Association, 2006). Some of the names can also be found in the township map of North Crosby (from  Leavitt, Thadeus W. H. History of Leeds and Grenville, Ontario [Brockville : Recorder Press, 1879]), available online via the Canadian County Atlas Digital Project (McGill University). Also see this Westport, Ontario, Canada page at Bytown or Bust.

I have only included marriages where one or both parties are identified with Co. Armagh. Other Irish counties cited in the marriage register for St. Edward’s, Westport (for the same period: 1852-1858) include Cavan, Clare, Cork, Galway, Kerry, Louth, Mayo, and Wexford.

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  1. Note that Forkill/Forkhill is a civil parish. The corresponding Roman Catholic parish is that of Mullaghbawn. ↩

Catholic Records, Census Records, Migration

Border Crossings (Daleys): Anthony Daley

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Anthony Daley was born at Clarendon, Pontiac Co., Québec in March 1863, and baptized (Ste. Anne, Calumet Island) on 5 April 1863, with Michael Hughes and Elizabeth McCullough serving as godparents. He was the eleventh son and fifteenth child of Matthew Daley and Ellen Killeen.

He emigrated to the US (Michigan or Wisconsin) around 1880, perhaps with several of his brothers, and presumably to work in the lumbering trade. By 1895, he was a resident of Florence County, Wisconsin.
On 2 October 1895, at Norway, Dickinson Co., Michigan, Anthony Daley married Mary O’Donnell, daughter of John O’Donnell and Bridget Kale. From the Michigan Marriages, 1868-1925 database at FamilySearch, here is the civil registration of their (RC, performed by a priest named F.X. Bastien) marriage (click preview to see larger image):
daley_anthony_odonnell_mary_marriage.jpg
Anthony Daley and Mary O’Donnell had a family of at least seven children, with their eldest child, a daughter named Donalda,* born in Michigan, and the other children all born in Wisconsin. They seem to have moved from Michigan to Wisconsin, and then back to Michigan.
How many of Anthony Daley’s brothers also emigrated to the States? In the 1910 US federal census for Waucedah, Dickinson, Michigan (sheet no. 2, family no. 22) Anthony (now Andrew) Daly and wife Mary can be found with six children (Denalda, Gerald, Vivien, Wayne, Anthony, and Debbe [listed here as a son, but possibly daughter Kathleen B.?), and with Anthony/Andrew’s widowed brother James, widower of Mary McHugh, listed as a “Retired Farmer.” Brother Dominic Daley may have ended up in Missoula, Montana. And brother Christopher Daley may have also emigrated to Michigan to marry an Ellen. In the 1880 US federal census for the township of Fraser, Bay County, Michigan, three brothers Christopher, Thomas and Patrick Daly, all born Canada and the dates seem to fit, are found working as Laborers in a lumber camp.
*One of my high school teachers (grade 10, homeroom) was a nun named Sister Donalda. I recall thinking at the time (o callow youth!…) that Donalda was sort of a funny name for a female. In retrospect, I remember her as a truly kind person, if sometimes a little bit cranky, and as an excellent history teacher. Viewing the 1900 US federal census return for Anthony Daly and wife Mary, with children Denalda, Gerrald, and Vivian C. (Wisconsin, Brown, Green Bay Ward 6, sheet no. 12, family no. 224) is the second time ever I have come across the name Donalda.

Migration

Surgeons’ Journals from 8 Ireland to Upper Canada ships, 1825

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New (or Newly Available Online) Peter Robinson Settlers Source
Olive Tree Genealogy is extracting the names of Irish passengers found in medical journals pertaining to eight ships (John Barry; Amity; Elizabeth; Star; Regulus; Fortitude; Brunswick; and Albion) which sailed from Cork to Québec in the spring and summer of 1825. These eight ships were part of the second wave (1825) of the Peter Robinson settlement. More details here.
Olive Tree Genealogy notes that:
Two of the ships medical journals are available online as a .pdf file at the National Archives UK website. The other medical journals are available for a free from the National Archives UK website.
Absolutely wonderful source for anyone researching PR ancestors.