IRL-LAOIS-L Archives

From: Christina Hunt <>
Subject: [LAOIS] Missing Friends CD
Date: Sun, 27 Oct 2002 12:35:30 -0500

Hi there,
This article was in the Eastman Newsletter so some of you may have seen it. It
describes a new product which does have a price, but I think it is worth
knowing about it. I have not seen it and am not recommending it of course.

The following article is from Eastman's Online Genealogy
Newsletter and is copyright 2002 by Richard W. Eastman. It is
re-published here with the permission of the author.
- CD-ROM: The Search for Missing Friends

The New England Historic Genealogical Society has a new Windows
and Macintosh CD-ROM that will be of interest to anyone searching
for Irish ancestry. Its coverage is not limited to New England; it
contains information from all over the U.S. as well as some
information about the Irish in Canada, Australia, and elsewhere.
This week I had a chance to use "The Search for Missing Friends -
Irish Immigrant Advertisements Placed in The Boston Pilot, 1831-
1920," edited by Ruth-Ann M. Harris and B. Emer O'Keefe. I used
this disk on a Windows 2000 system although I suspect that its
operation is similar on other Windows and Macintosh computers.

During the Potato Famine and for many years thereafter, the Irish
immigration disrupted thousands of families. Siblings, parents,
and even married couples often took separate routes to America,
Canada, Australia, or other lands to seek a better life. Once
established in their newly adopted countries, many of these Irish
immigrants expended a lot of effort in an attempt to locate other
family members who had also left their homes in Ireland.

The Boston Pilot newspaper ran "searching for..." notices for
nearly a century. The newspaper essentially acted as a missing
persons bureau. The notices were published in a column called
"Missing Friends" and became a standing feature in the paper.
Begun as a public service to readers both here and in Ireland, and
maintained from 1831 to 1916, the column describes thousands of
19th-century immigrants by such key identifying information as
name, county, townland, and parish of origin; time of emigration;
ports of exit and entry; destination in North America; occupation'
age; and names of other family members.

The advertisements arose from necessity. In the transition to life
in America, families were separated, addresses were lost or
confused, and many of the newcomers simply disappeared into the
vastness of the "promised land." Susan Reynolds, for example,
sought two lost daughters. A native of county Westmeath, she lived
on East Street in Boston in 1847 when she sought her daughter,
Rose, who had disappeared while searching for her sister Mary.
Mary was thought to be in Blackstone, Massachusetts.

The majority of Irish who came to America were likely to be young
unmarried adults. In the period covered by this volume (when
sixty-four percent of "missing friends" were siblings), half the
total number of Irish emigrants traveled in family groups. This
pattern peaked in the first half of the century and declined
steadily after 1850. By the time of the First World War, married
couples comprised only one-tenth of all Irish immigrants. Single
persons were more mobile, more able to move about searching for
work. Thus the Irish were ideally suited to nineteenth-century
America's labor needs. Unfortunately for their descendants,
however, single individuals tend to leave fewer records than
married couples.

While these advertisements were usually intended to find a person
living in America, Canada, or Australia, today those same ads have
an opposite value: they often can identify the county or even the
village of an Irish ancestor who may not have left any other clues
about his or her origins. Even those who were never found by the
notices in The Boston Pilot might be identified today. This CD-ROM
provides a source of information not found elsewhere.

Software installation of this CD-ROM disk was simple, about the
same as any other modern Windows program. The software is based
upon Folio Views, a very popular package that is used in many
genealogy CD-ROM disks. Once loaded, the CD-ROM disk operated in
about the same manner as the other NEHGS CD-ROM disks that I have
reviewed. That is, its use was intuitive at all times.

Simple searches worked almost instantly; type in a name, and all
occurrences of that name are highlighted. The user can click on
the "Next Hit" icon to jump from one occurrence of the name to the
next. Of course, searching for common Irish surnames alone can
produce thousands of "hits." My first search for the name Kelly
produced far too many results to view in one sitting. Searching
for a full name of "Bridget Kelly" did not help, as that actually
found even more entries: all those for the name Kelly plus all
those for the name Bridget. Luckily, the Advanced Query capability
solved that dilemma.

The Advanced Query syntax helps you focus and refine your searches
through the use of Boolean operators, wildcards, proximity
operators, and scope limitations. It allows you to search for
words in a wide variety of methods. You can search for the name
"Bridget" that appears within three words of the name "Kelly" and
within 50 words of the place name of "Boston." Such a search
quickly produced this listing:

Of BRIDGET KELLY, a native of co. Longford, parish of Racline,
and a child of 11 years, whose passages were paid last spring
in Harnden & Co.'s line, and came with Christopher Martagh and
family; sailed from Liverpool on the 26th of April last and
supposed landed in Boston. Any information respecting them
will be thankfully received by Thomas Kelly, Mt. Savage,
Alleghany County, Maryland.

You can see from this one sample listing that the names of three
immigrants are provided, as well as a reference to the origins in
Ireland of one. Best of all, the information is easily copied to a
word processor, genealogy program, or other application by using
the normal Windows or Macintosh "copy and paste" functions.

Another listing of only two sentences provides a wealth of
information for later genealogists:

Of MRS MOLONEY, (maiden name Mary Madden) of the green of
Cashel [co. Tipperary], who is supposed to be living in Troy
or Rondout, N Y. She will hear something to her advantage
(from her brother Daniel in Australia) by addressing Wm Ryan,
Mt Kemble, Morristown, N J.

This very brief listing gives the woman's maiden name as well as
her married name, her village in Ireland, her probable location in
America, and the name of a brother living in Australia.

Many of the listings are poignant, such as the one above that
appears to be a search for an 11-year-old girl separated from her
family. Some of the searches ended happily, as in one case cited
by the authors of this compilation:

Although it is rare to read of a successful search, it is
sometimes possible to surmise success from other information.
Such is the case with Margaret Finneron Dolan's search for her
husband, John. A native of Taughmaconnell, county Roscommon,
John was believed to be in St. John, New Brunswick, having
arrived in America in April 1840. He left Margaret and their
three children with no support. Unable to locate him, Margaret
placed the advertisement in 1845, naming John Carberry of Mill
Dam, in Roxbury, Massachusetts, as a contact person. The 1850
census lists a John Carbury, age 37, a laborer born in
Ireland, living in Roxbury, Norfolk Co., Massachusetts, and
the 1850 Roxbury City Directory lists a John Carbury living on
Parker Street and working in the soap works. The household
consisted of Carbury and his wife, Margaret, age 35, and seven
children, aged seven months to ten years; there is also a
Patrick Kenney, 25, a laborer born in Ireland; an Andrew
Sprill, 30, ditto; and Mary Sprill, 20, undoubtedly either
Andrew's wife or sister. Apparently the Carburys, like the
Irish in England, took in boarders. Possibly Margaret Dolan
boarded with the Carburys and thus listed them as contacts.
The Carburys, Sprills and Patrick Kenney were listed in the
census as "persons over 20 years of age who cannot read and
write." Thus the Pilot advertisements may well have reached,
or were used by, immigrants who were illiterate. The 1849 and
1850 city directories list a John Dolan, laborer, living on
Parker Street, near Prentiss, and thus near the Carbury
family. These facts suggest that Margaret's advertisement may
have been successful, and that after finding each other the
Dolans became neighbors of the Carburys. (There were several
John Dolans listed after 1850 at other addresses in Roxbury,
but it is unclear which, if any, pertain to this particular
family.)

Ruth-Ann M. Harris and B. Emer O'Keefe have created a great
reference that is valuable for thousands of Irish descendants.
Some of this material has been printed in the past. However, the
new CD-ROM edition is much smaller, cheaper, and far easier to
search.

Michael J. Leclerc, Doug Sisko, Carolyn Sheppard Oakley, D.
Brenton Simons, and the other staff members of the New England
Historic Genealogical Society are to be congratulated for making
this excellent reference available in electronic format.

If you have elusive Irish ancestors whose origins in the old
country have not yet been determined, you will want to check "The
Search for Missing Friends - Irish Immigrant Advertisements Placed
in The Boston Pilot, 1831-1920." Your ancestor might be listed
there, either as the one who placed a notice or as one being
sought. In either case, this CD-ROM often provides clues that
often are not available elsewhere. No Irish family historian can
be without this research tool!

This CD-ROM disk requires at least 2 megabytes of hard disk space
and a 4-speed or faster CD-ROM drive. Windows users will require a
modern monitor with at least 800x600 pixel display; 32 bit color
or higher; a Pentium I processor or better; Windows 95, 98, NT or
2000; and 32mb RAM (64mb recommended). Macintosh users will
require System 7.5 or higher and 40mb RAM (64mb recommended). Note
that Folio will not run on System OS X.

"The Search for Missing Friends - Irish Immigrant Advertisements
Placed in The Boston Pilot, 1831-1920" sells for $69.99 (U.S.
funds) plus shipping. It can be ordered online safely from the New
England Historic Genealogical Society's secure shopping cart
system. You do not need to be a member of the Society to purchase
the CD-ROM disk. To read more about this CD-ROM disk or to order
it online, go to:
http://www.newenglandancestors.org/store/browse/product.asp?sku=139636227


Regards,
Christina
North Carolina, USA

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• [LAOIS] Missing Friends CD by Christina Hunt <>