Where they went | The Irish in America

Last week I received a comment from a woman from County Wexford who was interested in learning about her great-uncle’s family, the Coadys, who left for America in the early twentieth century. Her mother had kept in contact with a cousin in America for many years, but eventually lost touch.

Sample of 1930 US Federal Census (click image to enlarge)

She had a few solid clues: the names and birth dates of the parents, the children’s names, and the town in Pennsylvania where they once lived. I did a quick search and found the correct Coady family in the 1920 and 1930 U.S. Federal Census. I also found the ship manifest for their voyage to America, and even the uncle’s death as registered with the Social Security Administration. This is but the tip of the iceberg for the Coady family in America; much more information is available.

When I searched the census, I came across an interesting tidbit of information that helps illustrate the point I made in my last post regarding the predictable nature of Irish emigration. My search of the 1920 census brought up the Coady family I was looking for as well as a second family – a generation older, but with the same surname. There were even three grandchildren with identical names to the children in the original Coady family. The three girls were older, so I could be fairly certain it wasn’t an error.

Clearly the family who immigrated in 1914 were not the first Coady family to come to this part of the United States. The older family had been here since 1888 and were firmly established in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The presence of kin would have helped the young immigrant family tremendously to adjust to life in America. Ten years later, in 1930, the young Coady family moved to another town in Pennsylvania where Mr. Coady found work in a sanatorium for tuberculosis patients.

The network had been in place for generations before the Coady family came to America in 1914. Emigration had become an accepted option for so many in Ireland. In the book Emigrants and Exiles, author Kirby Miller describes how changes in Irish society affected emigration during the years 1856-1921:

“Many emigrated eagerly or at least without protest, either alienated from a society impoverished in more than economic respects, or conditioned to join relatives abroad whose letters and remittances promised advantages unavailable in Ireland.”

What about those they left behind in Ireland? I wonder if they were relieved to not have to leave home, or were they envious of those who went to America?

I just returned from a trip to New Hampshire. New Hampshire is a state located on the East coast of the United States, north of Massachusetts. My sister and I conducted research on several families who came from County Cork in the mid-1800s and settled in Concord, New Hampshire before moving west to Minnesota.

New Hampshire State House - Concord

Our first stop was the New Hampshire Historical Society research library. We scoured the city directories and looked through other pertinent items in their collection. We made some interesting discoveries, and along the way I was struck by a common pattern of Irish migration.

From the city directories it was very clear how the Irish came to the US. They immigrated in waves, joining relatives who had previously settled in a certain area. Given this pattern, the new arrival would have a place to stay, possibly a job waiting for them, and a community of family and fellow Irishmen ready to welcome a new member to America.

This is a key thing to remember when researching your relative who came to America: most often emigrants followed a path made by previous family members or neighbors. Of course this was not always the case, but the migratory patterns of Irish coming to America are somewhat predictable.

Does anyone have a story to share, perhaps one that would prove the exception to my “theory”? Please leave a comment.

I received the first inquiry and have found some promising results that I will share with Margaret. She made it easy – she had some names, dates, and the place where they lived in America. If you have a similar query, please don’t hesitate to ask me for help.

I would also be interested in hearing from anyone whose relatives settled in New Hampshire. All over the state are towns named after towns or counties in Ireland, including Derry, Dublin, and Antrim. The mills of Manchester and Concord, as well as the building of the infrastructure they required, created hard-laboring jobs for new immigrants. The story was the same in most major American cities and towns during the Industrial Revolution.