The Irish in Canada And On the Internet
By Ivan Robinson
It’s not uncommon for someone to come into the French-Canadian Genealogical Society of Connecticut library and ask for help in finding an ancestor who was Irish.
This will come as no surprise to anyone who knows a little bit about Canadian history, for Canada was second only to the United States as a destination for the well over one million men, women and children who left Ireland in the 1800s praying for a better life — or during the Great Famine in the 1840s, for survival itself.
According to one estimate, 14 percent of all immigrants to Québec from 1829 to 1914 were Irish. About halfway through this period — in 1867, the year of Confederation — 25 percent of all Canadians reportedly were of Irish descent.
Therefore, you will find many Irish names among the marriages indexed in such FCGSC reference works as the Drouin books, Loiselle microfiches and parish repertoires.
There is always, of course, the Web for additional help. This article will review the history of the Irish in Canada. At the end, you will find Internet links to some of the sources available on line for those seeking an Irish ancestor who immigrated to Canada or came through there on the way to the States. (“Immigrant” and “emigrant” are almost interchangeable terms. One emigrates from somewhere but immigrates to somewhere. From Ireland’s point of view, the people were emigrants; from Canada’s, they were immigrants.)
Early Irish Were Fishermen, Soldiers
The earliest Irish in Canada showed up in the Maritimes. An Irishman was reported in Newfoundland in 1622, trapping beaver with some Indians. It is not mentioned how he got there. The rich fishing grounds as well as the trapping were undoubtedly the attraction.
By 1731, the majority of males in Newfoundland were Irish Roman Catholics. St. John’s, the capital of Newfoundland, claims to be one of the most Irish places in the world outside Ireland. New Brunswick also boasts an Irish heritage. Miramichi in Northumberland County on the east coast calls itself “Canada’s Irish capital.” It has a yearly Irish Festival.
Irish settlers in Québec in the 1700s tended to be soldiers who had fought in the armies of both sides in the nearly continuous wars between England and France and had decided to stay after being discharged. They included pro-English Irish who had been taken prisoner. The Canadians treated them well, hoping to gain more settlers. The American Revolution also produced an influx of Irish families who remained loyal to the English crown.
Immigration increased at the turn of the new century. The agricultural depression that followed the Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815) drove many Irish people across the Atlantic. At that time, they were mostly Protestant landowners from the province of Ulster in northern Ireland, people traditionally called Scotch-Irish (now, preferably Scots-Irish).
The mass migrations of the Irish to Canada began in the late 1820s and led to the creation in 1832 of the immigration processing center on Grosse Île, described by some as Canada’s Ellis Island. The island, three miles long and one mile wide, is just north of the Isle of Orleans, chosen because it is close to Québec City and ideal for isolating newcomers pending health clearances. It is one of several small islands in the middle of the St. Lawrence River off Montagny.
More than 600,000 Irish cleared through Grosse Île from the beginnings to 1851. Once they passed quarantine and completed processing, the immigrants were allowed to proceed to wherever they wanted to go.
Many went to towns that were already pockets of Irish settlement. In 1832, an immigrants’ guidebook listed some in Lower Canada (Québec) as Frampton, St. Giles, New Argyle, New Ireland, Beauport, Stoneham, Tewksbury, Valcartier, Jacques Cartier, Deschambault, Portneuf, Brandon, Kilkenny, Rawdon, and Kildare. The handbook also directed immigrants to other places where work could be found, such as Sherbrooke and the surrounding Eastern Townships, Chambly (where a canal was being built) and Three Rivers.
Said the handbook: “Artificers [skilled craftsmen] and Mechanics of all denominations, and farming Labourers, if sober and industrious, may be sure of doing well. Blacksmiths, particularly those acquainted with steam engine work, also good Millwrights, Masons and Sawyers, by machinery, are much wanted in the Canadas.”
