Emigration and Seasonal Migration

Background

• Tendency to see Famine (1846-1851) as cause of Irish Diaspora –when over a million people left Ireland for North America

• Heavy emigration from Ireland began well before Famine and continued well after it

• End of Napoleonic Wars in 1815 –many small farmers, agricultural labourers and rural tradesmen in Ireland saw emigration as only solution to declining economic prospects

• Emigration acted as a “safety valve”, enabling young men and women with little economic prospects to escape Ireland
  

Irish Diaspora Today

• 32.6 million Americans (nearly 12% of population) claim Irish ancestry
  

• Additional 3.5 million identify more specifically with Scotch-Irish ancestry (Ulster Scots)
  

• In 19th century significant Irish communities settled in Argentina and South America
  

• 5 million with Irish roots living in Canada
  

• 10 million people in Britain can trace roots back to Ireland
  

• 5 million people in Australia
  

• 500,000 in New Zealand have Irish roots
  

• Significant Irish communities also settled in France, Spain and the West Indies in the 17th century
  

Useful Emigration Websites

Click on the links below - opens onto a new page......

www.istg.rootsweb.com

www.ancestorsonboard.com

www.genealogybranches.com/irishpassengerlists

www.ancestry.com (subscription required)

www.ellisisland.org/search/passSearch.asp

http://archives.gnb.ca/Irish/databases_en.html

www.theirelandcanadastory.com/index.html

www.geocities.ws/nziconnections/immlist.htm

www.teara.govt.nz

More to be added soon.....