Hi Veronica - I don't have specific knowledge of this topic but the 1840s series of failures of the potato crop resulting in 'the famine' were not the only famines in Ireland in the early 1800s and indeed long before that. Gustave de Beaumont, writing in 1839 quotes Boulter, principle agent of the English government 'Since my arrival in this country (in 1725) famine has not ceased among the poor. There was such a dearth of grain last year, that thousands of families were obliged to quit their dwellings to look for support elseqwhere: many hundreds perished'. In 1832 Bishop Doyle was asked what was the state of the population in the west and replied 'The people are perishing as usual' - also from de Beaumont. In other places the industries which had built up, such as weaving and textile work at home, had been completely wiped out by the industrial developments in England with which the cottage and home-based industries could not compete. There were probably many other factors as well, including land issues and political unrest. Certainly the Irish had been leaving for America for many decades prior to the famine years. I think you will find plenty of literature is available on the pre-1840 period as well as information on the web. Good luck with your searching. Regards, Patsy - New Zealand. Subject: Re: [IRELAND] Post Famine Emigration from Ireland to Glasgow,Scotland -- Book Review (2003) > Re the subject book "Irish, The Remarkable Story of a Nation and a > City" by John Burrows, is there a volume which might describe the > emigration from County Galway to Liverpool in the early 1800's? My > ancestor JOHN THORNTON (bn 1799) left Ireland with four children > sometime before 1830. His son, JOHN THORNTON, my great grandfather > was born in Ormskirk, Lancashire in 1830. Both JOHN, the father and > his wife Ann, died within a month of each other in December/January, > 1839/40 of typhus fever. The Irish born children survived as, > hawkers, labourers and female servants. John, the son moved to the > northeast of England and seemed to do better. I am curious as to why > they would leave Ireland to live in such poverty in England? > > Veronica Thornton Hagin