Tim, I wish I had a definite answer to your query, for I have the same question. Here’s what I’ve found out so far. Money from America was known as the remittance and many times, particularly during the Famine, it was the difference between life and death. Collectively, the amount of money sent “back home” from America was huge. Remittances were used to buy food and pay rent and it also enabled tens of thousands to emigrate. Some letters from America contained cash, others ship tickets, but perhaps the most widespread practice was to deposit money in an American Bank as a credit to an account and then the recipient in Ireland withdrew the funds from a bank in Dublin or Cork. A commission was charged of about 10% for the transaction. This system was used in the 1850s during the California Gold Rush to enable successful gold miners to send their money back home. The first business there was Adams & Co., later bought out by Wells-Fargo. The bank most widely used by the Irish was New York’s Emigrant Savings Bank founded in 1850 as a direct result of the Famine Immigration. The depositor’s records of the bank can be accessed through Ancestry.com. There must have been other similar banks in the larger cities like Boston. If there were, I’d like to know more about them, and any other banks in the more rural areas of America. Hope this was of some help. Please keep us posted with further details. John Ross On Feb 15, 2016, at 3:53 AM, Tim King via <beara@rootsweb.com> wrote: > I had an ancestor who came to Boston in the mid-1820’s from Beara. It appears he left a wife and a couple of children in Ireland for a few years. What was the mechanism used to arrange for money to be sent from the States back to Ireland to support the family? Also was it common for the men to return to Ireland from time to time to see their families? > > Tim King > > --- > This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. > https://www.avast.com/antivirus > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to BEARA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message