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Famine immigrants' desperate search for missing loved ones

Their desperate voices speak to us generations later

By
KARA ROTA,
Irish America Magazine Writer
Published Saturday, January 28, 2012, 7:04 AM
Updated Saturday, January 28, 2012, 7:34 AM

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Illustration of Irish family saying goodbye to immigrants


From 1831 through 1916, the national Boston Pilot newspaper printed some 45,000 "Missing Friends" advertisements placed by friends and relatives in attempts to locate loved ones lost during emigration. These ads, consolidated into edited volumes, provide a valuable record of a poor emigrant population trying to reach one another.

“Since it was a very large movement of people, many of whom left little behind, it’s hard to know the personal stuff,” said Emer O'Keeffe, an editor of several of the volumes. “This is what the ads provide; they speak directly to us, and this intimacy makes them appealing. John Fallon ‘had light hair, blue eyes; was about four feet, four inches in height; wore a blue spencer, a new scoop shovel cap, a fancy pants and had a freckled face.’ You can really see this boy! You can often glimpse a personality. Thomas Sullivan was described by his wife as ‘of medium height, brown hair, fair complexion, and free in conversation.’ The vulnerability of individuals left stranded is also clear. James Rourke’s wife and children were ‘daily mourning his absence.’ Catherine Kelly sought her husband, signing herself ‘the mother of his four living children.’ The voices of these emigrants resonate still.

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In their own words, through the Boston Pilot listings, emigrants express their hope, fear and loss. “The ads run the gamut of immigrant experience and the tone reflects this,” Emer O’Keeffe said, “From personal emotions – vulnerability and loss, hope and pride when things are going well – to the larger social movements. The tone of the 1847 listings, for example, is very different from that of the 1890s when the immigrants are more prosperous and social networks much more evolved. … [Famine emigrants] certainly didn’t give up the hope of locating [their loved ones]. Many immigrants placed ads again and again for family they might not have seen or heard from in decades. And the ads weren’t cheap: thousands paid their daily wage and more ($1) for an ad that would run three times.”

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17 Comments

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ciaradexy | Feb 01, 2012, 11:18 AM EST
Ah there he is! Aul Gearoid! Another 'Oirish American' yeah? Youre another lover of the Americanized version of Ireland are you? Nice one! Sniff sniff...

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Gearoid4 | Jan 30, 2012, 03:30 PM EST
C. Dexy knows how to make an entrance. Maybe the B.S she detected was her own.

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joycean | Jan 30, 2012, 09:26 AM EST
IrelandNorth, We already have a 51st state lined up, Puerto Rico. And the District of Columbia would love to be a state.Ireland is in no danger of being annexed. You are right about the grief, though, even though no one alive today lived through it.

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IrelandNorth | Jan 30, 2012, 07:25 AM EST
They used to have what they called emigrants wakes, i.e. as real as a wake for a recently deceased folk. Emigration was as real a death, for which many Irish/Americans have never worked-through, or fully grieved. Sell Ireland to the Americans as the 51 st. state of the Union, thereby solving all economic, political and neutral issues in one fell swoop.

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ciaradexy | Jan 29, 2012, 04:56 PM EST
Gearoid, I can sniff out bullshit from a mile hence the reply.

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Gearoid4 | Jan 29, 2012, 04:28 PM EST
@George, C Dexy right on cue.

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joycean | Jan 29, 2012, 10:42 AM EST
ballyhip, So the Famine Irish (the Houlihans) quickly made it to lace curtain Irish! My grandmother arrived in Boston in 1899, age 15, orphaned, with her 11 year old brother in tow, and the next year was employed as a maid. But in 10 years, she was married to a man who came to Boston from Canada of Irish ancestry, started his own business, and helped her brother start his own business. My grandparents lived in a gracious, 5 bedroom home in Dorchester, and eventually had 7 children and over 30 grandchildren. The secret was serial immigration. One Irish person immigrated, then paid for the passage of a relative. As one became successful, he helped another. My grandfather had a couple of very successful relatives.

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ciaradexy | Jan 29, 2012, 10:01 AM EST
Do you think that people coming to Ireland from the Middle East or Africa in the back of a container on a ferry over a period of a few weeks is a lifestyle choice? If you do then you are a bigger fool than I thought Georgie. Obviously if people are starving and have no hope and fear for their lives then emigration isnt a lifestyle choice.

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ballyhip | Jan 29, 2012, 10:00 AM EST
Just to illustrate the progress that was made by the time my Mayo mother landed in Boston in 1929, her 1st employment was as a domestic with the Houlihan family in Newton, MA.

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ciaradexy | Jan 29, 2012, 09:59 AM EST
Ha! Well Georgie, my brother is in New Zealand. That was a lifestyle choice! he left a job here to go there! Next point? You obviously dont know what the term 'Oirish' means. It refers to plastic paddys. Those who exacerbate the begorrah bejaysis stereotype of Irishness so that wouldnt refer to people from Ireland, only those with an Irish link.

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Gearoid4 | Jan 29, 2012, 08:53 AM EST
@George,Saltpetre and C Dexy will be here,anon, no doubt.

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Mickwall | Jan 28, 2012, 05:31 PM EST
You can learn more about the Irish Hunger (Famine) at the Irish Hunger Committee blog. Visit irishhungercomm.wordpress.com - also give your own input by posting comments.

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GeorgeDillon | Jan 28, 2012, 05:04 PM EST
Expect some of our Oirish posters like curpeter and curdexter to be on soon to tell us that emigration was a lifestyle choice of the people described above.

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brenvancouver | Jan 28, 2012, 12:46 PM EST
With all the evidence now avalable of the events leading up to the years 1845-48 and during those years those who perished did not die from a natural shortage of food.

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carrickcourt | Jan 28, 2012, 11:48 AM EST
'Missing Persons' while being very sad has been helpful for many with their Irish-American family history research.

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