Irish famine immigrants saved large amounts of money says American History Journal

@RobinForrester: Slight correction in your most recent post, no doubting what you wrote, but as per the phrase "Baum (brown) became Brown," the word/name "baum" actually translates to "tree," not "brown." A way to remember that is the song "O Tannenbaum." In that song "baum" also means "tree."

I personally know a few immigrants who sent substantial amounts home to their families in Ireland in the '60s and '70s. Among these were men in their eary 20s servng in the U.S. military who arranged to have part of their meagre pay send home, and the Army matched this amount in what was called an allotment. Therse dollars not only helped the family of the young soldier, but also the ecomony of the Irish state, whose gov't cared nothing about its ambitious young citizens who were forced to emigrate.

IRISH PEOPLE NO LONGER IMMIGRATE TO AMERICA NOWADAYS IF THEY DONT GOTO ENGLAND WE GOTO AUSTRALIA, CANADA AND NEW ZEALAND...

Can I correct a rumour that's been going the rounds for at least 125 years. When passengers arrived at Ellis Island the immigration officers had a copy of the passenger list for each embarking ship in their hands, this list contained the names and former home town address, and country of origin for the arriving passengers, These officials had strict instructions that under no circumstances could they rename passengers, or suggest a better or more upmarket or Americanised name, or ignore what name was listed on the arriving passenger list. If your name was Yablonski, then it remained Yablonski on the entry certificate, but what did happen was, these people called initially 'greeners' by the locals, after a few years in the USA they 'wanted themselves a new name which invariably was a more attractive and often upmarket name. Afterwards, and to avoid being shame-faced they explained this name change to their relations by blaming the USA port officials, who they pretended had misheard them, and / or who couldn't understand the 20 languages he heard each day at the port, so he had (they claimed) shortcut the arrivals paperwork by giving them a sort of quick translation of their old name, hence it was alleged Schwartz (black) became "Black", and Baum (brown) became Brown, My favourite entertainers name Joelson became Jolson.

Among the many emigrants fromn Ireland who held savin accounts in what was the called the Irish Emigrant Bank in the late 1800s was my future maternal grandfather, Knocknagoshel, Kerry, Native Maurice Murphy. About 70 years later, I worked at the Emigrant Bank as a teller when I was discharged from the Marine Corps.

Popular maxim: "The best revenge is to live well." Due to forced early retirement, I don't live quite so well as my trajectory had indicated, but I did okay by timing the real estate market well all my life, and I retired to a tiny midwest town where I bought a huge 100-yr-old fixer house. Then I squeaked along on savings (my favorite word) for almost 4 years until I hit 62. But I'm still way ahead of people living higher on the hog while they carry crushing debt. Personal debt is slavery, plain and simple. Lord help us, my ex is now a Washington lobbyist, on paper worth an astronomical sum - and he'll die in debt up to his eyeballs if he doesn't crash and burn first.

Popular maxim: "The best revenge is to live well." Due to forced early retirement, I don't live quite so well as my trajectory had indicated, but I did okay by timing the real estate market well all my life, and I retired to a tiny midwest town where I bought a huge 100-yr-old fixer house. Then I squeaked along on savings (my favorite word) for almost 4 years until I hit 62. But I'm still way ahead of people living higher on the hog while they carry crushing debt. Personal debt is slavery, plain and simple. Lord help us, my ex is now a Washington lobbyist, on paper worth an astronomical sum - and he'll die in debt up to his eyeballs if he doesn't crash and burn first.

And we did this despite the virulent anti-Irish attitudes in America! "NO IRISH NEED APPLY" Well, as an ethnic group we also happen to have prospered more widely than any others also. All this while many of us still send money back home. Now at least once a year most people want to BE one of us. What a difference a few years make.

Maryosullivan - you are correct.

What a wonderful story, news which I am certain we are all pleased to hear and, if I could shout back in time 160 years, I'd say well done lads and lasses. I'm going to buy this book and it would be interesting to discover how the other immigrant groups fared, I suspect they all did well and hope that was the case. Even so wasn't it wonderful reading about the black sheep of the family whose humour and happiness and brotherly love for all was also worth it's weight in gold. About 40 years ago I worked in London Airport, and judging by the number of Irish people who worked there it should have been called Dublin Airport, these young staff workers got paid on a Friday, and as soon as they'd been paid they'd rush to the Halifax Savings Bank offices, to pay the giants share in. In Hounslow and Staines that evening you could see them sitting in pubs drinking a lemonade or shandy and quietly studying their savings passbook with an happy, little twinkle in their eyes. So three cheers today for all the Irish Savers who built New York and London and the world beyond.

The Luke Daily of 1862 may have been Daly originally, but the name change wouldn't have happened at Ellis Island, which didn't open until 1892. Suppose the practice of the Anglicizing/Americanizing immigrants' names began early on.

My ancestors came to USA post-Famine, worked on the East Coast for about ten years until they saved enough money to move West and purchase land. This was a common migration pattern. It is refreshing to see Irish immigrants portrayed as proactive individuals with a plan for success in America, rather than simply the victims of the atrocities in Ireland. I think that is what is remarkable about those Irish immigrants - they moved on and built new lives.

@ carrickcourt, it's whatever way the names were written down at Ellis Island is what they were stuck with. Instead of Daly they wrote Daily.

I read this story with much amusement because my grandfather, a child of an Irish immigrant mother, did virtually the same thing. He would not marry my grandmother until he had 10,000 dollars saved up. That is a story that has been passed down now to the great-great grandchildren.

@TisEyerish, it definitely gets more difficult to stay in the workforce, as you get older, even though you might be able. I heard, recently that most people are taking early retirement, and I feel that the main reason is not being able to find another job. It is a shame that people are being penalised hundreds of dollars a month for taking a forced (early) retirement. The prospect looms, not far ahead of me.