Taking on the myth that Irish settlers in Canada were a wave of famine victims, Lucille Campey reveals the pioneering achievements of the Irish who began populating — and thriving in — Ontario and Quebec a century before the famine of 1840. The second volume of the Irish in Canada series brings an informative and lively account of this great saga.
Challenging the commonplace view that the Irish immigration saga was primarily driven by dire events in Ireland, Lucille Campey’s groundbreaking work redraws the picture of early Irish settlement in Atlantic Canada. Extensively documented, and drawing on all known passenger lists of the period, the book is essential reading.
Scots, some of Upper Canadas earliest pioneers, influenced its early development. This book charts the progress of Scottish settlement throughout the province.
Most emigration from England was voluntary, self-financed, and pursued by people who, while expecting to improve their economic prospects, were also critical of the areas in which they first settled. The exodus from England that gathered pace during the 19th century accounted for the greatest part of the total emigration from Britain to Canada. And yet, while copious emigration studies have been undertaken on the Scots and the Irish, very little has been written about the English in Canada. Drawing on wide-ranging data collected from English record offices and Canadian archives, Lucille Campey considers why people left England and traces their destinations in Ontario and Quebec. A mass of detailed information relating to pioneer settlements and ship crossings has been distilled to provide new insights on how, why, and when Ontario and Quebec acquired their English settlers. Challenging the widely held assumption that emigration was primarily a flight from poverty, Campey reveals how the ambitious and resourceful English were strongly attracted by the greater freedoms and better livelihoods that could be achieved by relocating to Canada’s central provinces.
"A vivid and detailed account of the Irish immigrants who settled in early Canada.Canada's Irish Pioneers is Lucille Campey's third book on Irish immigration to Canada. It incorporates material from her two previous books relating to Atlantic Canada and Ontario and Quebec and describes their settlements in the Prairies and British Columbia. New insights are also provided on the financial assistance provided by landlords to their tenants during the famine years and by the custodians of workhouses later on. Canada's Irish Pioneers is the first, fully-documented account, produced in recent times, of the great migration of Irish people to Canada. It is packed full of data on sea crossings and settlements, and the phenomenal geographical progress which the Irish made across Canada can be viewed in twenty six maps.The Irish were ambitious people with big dreams who were desperate to escape from the poverty in their homeland. This saga is all about the thrusting, brave and well-organized immigrants who prospered in Canada.Extensively documented, the book contains much of vital interest to genealogists and historians.Lucille Campey, born in Ottawa, is the author of fourteen books on early Scottish, English and Irish immigration to Canada. A professional researcher and historian, she has a master's degree in medieval history from Leeds University and a Ph.D. from Aberdeen University in emigration history. She lives near Salisbury in Wiltshire, England.In his recent "Canada's Anglo-Celtic Connections" blog, John Reid outlined the extensive coverage of the book and its value to family historians" -- publisher.
Volume II of "Erin's Sons" covers the same time period as its predecessor and the same geographic area--the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia--and it lists an additional 7,000 Irish arrivals in Atlantic Canada before 1853. What is remarkable about this second volume is the rich variety of information derived from hard-to-find sources such as church records of marriages and burials, cemetery records, headstone inscriptions, military description books, newspapers, poor house records, and passenger lists.
"This new, expanded edition of Irish Migrants in the Canadas traces the genealogies, movements, landholding strategies, and economic lives of 775 families of Irish immigrants who came to Canada between 1815 and 1855. This study has important implications for our understanding of nineteenth-century society in Ireland, Canada, and the United States."--Jacket.
In mid-nineteenth-century Canada, the Irish outnumbered the English and Scots two to one. Yet they have been much less studied than their US counterparts, even though their experience was very different. Irish settlers arrived earlier in Canada, formed a larger proportion of the founding communities, and were largely rural-based; more than half were Protestant. The Famine provided only a rather late part of the Irish emigration to Canada, which took place principally between 1816 and 1855. The authors evaluate both emigration and settlement and present as well revealing personal documents about intense, often painful experiences of the settlers. Part I explores the geographical links – particularly the phenomenon of chain migration – that shaped decisions to leave Ireland. Part II examines patterns of settlement in the new land. Part III, with biographies of immigrants and collections of letters written home, chronicles personal and social life in the new land and the abiding interest in family and friends in Canada and back in Ireland. The documents illustrate links and patterns revealed in the earlier analysis of emigration and settlement; they also offer an additional, intimate perspective on a key phase in the cultural history of Canada and Ireland.
P.E.I. was the first Canadian area to acquire Scottish pioneers. Its colonization by Scots occurred when the process of immigration and settlement was in its infancy.
