Famine immigrants' desperate search for missing loved ones

Their desperate voices speak to us generations later

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Illustration of Irish family saying goodbye to immigrants

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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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