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Famine Immigrants, 1846–1851 by Hugh McGough

This page is part of a section in my website devoted to McGoughs who immigrated from Ireland in 1900 and earlier:

McGough, McGeough and McGeogh Immigrants to the United States. (Go to this section for an introduction and general references.)

Irish Immigrants, 1820–1845

Famine Immigrants, 1846–1851

Irish Immigrants, 1852–1865

Irish Immigrants, 1866–1880

Irish Immigrants, 1881–1891

Irish Immigrants, 1892–1900

The arrivals in New York City on this page is primarily based on The Famine Immigrants Lists of Irish Immigrants Arriving at the Port of New York, 1846–1851, a seven volume work, beginning with volume I : January 1846–June 1847, by Ira A. Glazier. and Michael H. Tepper, associate editor.

The list has been made available for free by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Access to Archival Databases (AAD)—Irish (Records for Passengers Who Arrived at the Port of New York During the Irish Famine, created, 1977–1989, documenting the period 1/12/1846–12/31/1851), is part of the website of the National Archives of the United States. See: Tips for Searching NARA's Irish Famine Immigrants Database—Irish Immigrants to New York 1846–1851, by Joe Beine.

The Famine Immigrants is also available from Ancestry.com on line by subscription. Ancestry.com gives this description of the database:

Source Information:

Ancestry.com. Irish Immigrants: New York Port Arrival Records, 1846–1851 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2001. Original data: Famine Irish Entry Project, 1846–1851. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration.

About Irish Immigrants: New York Port Arrival Records, 1846–1851

The disease that struck the Irish potato crop in the winter of 1845–46 brought ruin to tens of thousands of tenant farmers and labourers, reducing almost all of Ireland to poverty. In fact, in the four years between 1845 and 1848 the potato crop failed three times, causing what became known as the Great Famine. Making matters worse, very few farmers owned their own land or even held title to their humble dwellings, so when the crop failed they had scarcely any resources to call on. As a result, countless people faced the choice of leaving Ireland or perishing. Many travelled to Britain and Australia, and between 1846 and 1851, more than a million men, women, and children emigrated to the United States and Canada, mostly through the port of New York.

This database is a collection of mainly Irish immigrants whose names were extracted from the originals of New York port arrival records (Customs Passenger Lists). Those extracting the names from the passenger arrival records did so with the purpose of enumerating all Irish passengers who entered the port of New York between 1846 and 1851. Even though the goal was to only extract the "Irish" persons from the given passenger record, there are some records that have been extracted for people of other nationalities, including: England, Wales, Scotland, France, and others. However, keep in mind that often passengers were classified as citizens of the country from which their ship embarked. Thus, an Irish emigrant may have been designated as "English" if he or she travelled from the port of Liverpool.

Information from the following categories can generally be found for each of the more than 600,000 entries: Surname, Given Name, Age, Gender, Literacy, Native Country, Residence, Destination, Transit Type, Compartment, Port of Embarkation, Ship, Number of Passengers on the ship, Arrival Date, and Occupation.

I found a few additional names in New York Passenger Lists, 1820–1957 on Ancestry.com. I have added arrivals in ports other than New York A list of McGough and McGeough immigrants from Ireland will be found on Ann McGeough Harney's web page: McGeough & Variations—Irish Emigrant Ships—Including affiliated families.

For a general list of immigration resources, see: Immigration and Ships Passenger Lists Research Guide by Arnold H. Lang. See also: Cyndi's List, Immigration and Naturalization and the listings under Irish Emigrants on my Links page.

A helpful online index of all Irish-named passengers who arrived in New York between 1846 and 1851 will be found at Irish Immigration Passenger Record Data: 1846–1851, part of the free Family History and Genealogy Research Databases.

Famine Immigrants, 1846 –1851 <http://www.magoo.com/hugh/immigrants1846.html> Updated May 21, 2013		Feedback » Site Search & Directory » © 1999–2009 Hugh McGough »