New York City IrishBy Connie LenzenA column written for the 22 July 2004 issue of the Vancouver Columbian. |
A Columbian reader asks how to research her New York City Irish. She wants to find where in Ireland her family originated. She wants to do it right now so that she can visit the villages when she goes to Ireland next month.
There is a problem here. Ireland has no centralized database that shows where an ancestor was born. One must conduct research in American records to find the name of the village.
The Irish poured into New York City during and after the Famine. By 1860, 25% of New York City's population was born in Ireland. The Irish immigrants were poor and most were illiterate. That complicates the search because there will be fewer sources of information. They did not buy land, so there are no deed records. They had no property when they died, so there are no probate records. Their names were often misspelled, so they are difficult to find on censuses.
Plus, New York City is composed of several counties, boroughs, and wards, and each of them may need to be researched. Our reader may not find the name of the Irish village where her ancestors were born, but she is bound to find interesting reading in several new websites and in a book.
The Italian Genealogical Group created an "Index to New York City Deaths." It's online at www.italiangen.org/NYCDeath.stm. The years covered are 1891 to 1894 for Manhattan, 1895 to 1897 for Manhattan and Brooklyn, and 1898 to 1911 for all boroughs. There are almost 1,400,000 records in the database. When you search for a name, you are given an entry that contains the surname, given name, age at death, date of death, certificate number, and county. You can order the certificate from the New York Municipal Archives, and a copy of the order form is on the site.
The website, "The Irish in New York City," online at http://www.irishinnyc.freeservers.com/, contains articles about the areas where the Irish lived, several databases, and links to others. The links include an index to the Brooklyn Daily Eaglenewspaper and the searchable database of Famine Immigrants who arrived at the Port of New York between 1846-1851. This database is provided by the National Archives.
The New York City Irish were mostly Catholic, and that church's sacramental registers (baptisms, marriages, burials) contain important information. Women are listed by their maiden names, names of parents may be given, and the witnesses are often relatives. Jay P. Dolan's The Immigrant Church New York's Irish and German Catholics 1815-1865 contains fascinating information about the New York Irish and includes a ward map that shows where most of the Irish lived.
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© 2004
Connie Lenzen, CG