Boston IrishBy Connie LenzenAn article published in the 14 March 2006 issue of the Vancouver Columbian. |
When I think of Irish immigrants, I think of Boston. The Port of Boston was used by a great number of Irish immigrants. Fortunately, most of those ship lists beginning in the Great Famine times are indexed.
Ancestry.com has the index from 1820-1943 on their Website.
The Massachusetts State Archives has the original manifests for
passengers arriving at the Port of Boston from 1848 to 1891. The Archives staff
is entering their index into a computerized database. Go to www.sec.state.ma.us, click on "Massachusetts Archives," and then "Our Collections."
Online indexes are good, but it is always nice to look at the microfilm of the passenger lists, and they are just a car drive away. The Pacific Alaska Region of the National Archives in Seattle has microfilm copies of the Boston index and lists. They are open from Monday through Friday.
Beginning in 1831, the Boston Pilot newspaper ran an "Information Wanted" column. It was here that people advertised their search for missing friends and relatives.
The newspaper said, "Advertisements under this head are inserted three times one dollar. The immense circulation of the Pilot in every city, town, and hamlet on the American Continent, renders it the best medium through which to make inquiries about lost friends. More than three-fourths of those advertised for are found. Persons wishing their friends advertised, can send us a dollar enclosed in a letter, with the advertisements written as legibly as possible, in order that no mistakes may be made by the printer."
Boston College's Irish Studies Program created an online index to the more than 30,000 advertisements in the newspaper. Find this at http://infowanted.bc.edu.
The index entries are based on the eight-volume set of books called The Search for Missing Friends: Irish Immigrant Advertisements Placed in the Boston Pilot. Each transcription in the books contains additional information. If you find an ancestor in the online index, you should follow up by looking at the books. The Genealogical Forum of Oregon Library in Portland has a complete set.
© 2006
Connie Lenzen, CG
| Home | Fees | Columns and Articles | How to do Oregon Research | Speech List |