Wednesday 27 October 2021

Irish Ordnance Survey Memoirs emigrants and seasonal workers data added to Ancestry

Ancestry has added a database entitled Ireland, Irish Emigration Lists, 1833-1839 at https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/62369/. Here is the blurb:

Ireland, Irish Emigration Lists, 1833-1839

Original data: Compiled Under the Direction of Brian Mitchell. Irish Emigration Lists, 1833-1839. Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc. Lists of Emigrants Extracted from the Ordnance Survey Memoirs for Counties Londonderry and Antrim.

About Ireland, Irish Emigration Lists, 1833-1839

General Collection Information

This collection contains an index for residents of County Antrim or County Derry~Londonderry in Northern Ireland who emigrated between 1833 and 1839. The records in this collection were compiled from notebooks kept during the Ordnance Survey of Ireland and are organised by county, church parish, and last name.

Using this Collection

Records may include the following information:

    Person’s name
    Age
    Year departed
    Name of county
    Name of town
    Name of parish
    Destination
    Religion
    Occupation
    Names of family members

Please note that the destinations contained in this collection are all ports and therefore may not have been your ancestor’s final destination. You may also notice that not all were immigrating to America or Canada; many were travelling to Glasgow or Liverpool. It’s possible that your ancestor was a seasonal migrant, or they may have been practicing what was known as “stepwise” migration. It wasn’t uncommon to purchase a cheap ticket to England or Scotland for seasonal work, and then use the money they earned to continue on to America.

In this collection, all religious denominations are abbreviated. Please see the following key to determine your ancestor’s religion:

    RC = Roman Catholic
    EC = Established Church
    P = Presbyterian
    S = Seceder
    I = Independent
    M = Methodist
    MO = Moravian
    COV = Covenanter
    BAP = Baptist


As Ancestry notes, the records include seasonal migrants to Britain, as recorded in the Ordnance Survey Memoir Books, but only from Counties Antrim and Londonderry. The following is the record for my four times great grandfather David Gordon, from Ballylumford townland in Islandmagee, as presented on Ancestry:

And as shown in the original published memoir for the parish of Islandmagee:


For some entries, you may get a slightly better understanding of when the information was recorded between 1833 and 1839 within the original published account. The account for Islandmagee was collated by James Boyle bertwen Jan 1835 and April 1840, and thus David's undated entry could not have been from 1833 or 1834. As can be seen above, some of the emigrant information above is more specifically dated, which is reflected in the database.

The original Ordnance Survey Memoir Books, which cover the northernmost counties only (not just Antrim and Londonderry), can be purchased from the Ulster Historical Foundation book store at https://www.booksireland.org.uk/store/ordnance-survey-memoirs. Think of them as the Irish equivalent of Scotland's Statistiscal Accounts!

Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

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