SNIPPET: In the tragic story of Grosse Isle, many of the medical staff became ill and died while taking care of passengers from Ireland with typhus and scarlet fever. Grosse Isle, an island three miles long and about a mile wide, lies 30 miles to the east and down river from Quebec. It was first used as a quarantine center 15 years earlier when a cholera epidemic struck European emigrants. A huge increase in Canadian emigration was seen after the introduction of the Poor Laws in Ireland in 1838, which meant that every landlord's rates were assessed on the value of his estate and he was also responsible for paying rates for every one of his tenants with land worth less than 4 pounds. That involved many thousands, and after years of Famine many millions of impoverished and sickly tenants had to be dealt with. It did not matter to the tax collectors whether a landlord's tenants were unable to pay their rents, the landlord was still required to pay the rates, a proportion of which maintained the local workhouses where the destitute were admitted when they had absolutely no other means of supporting themselves; during this period even the workhouses were facing bankruptcy. For the landlords, fewer tenants meant a lower potential income but it also meant lower rates. The answer was to clear the estates. Paying the Atlantic fares was much cheaper than paying too much towards the workhouse, and the passage to Canada was far cheaper than to America. Many Irish left from Liverpool. In his reports, Dr. George Douglas, Grosse Isle, described the "Naomi" from Liverpool in 1847 as a "plague-ship," with its "filth and dirt in the hold creating an effluvium as to make it difficult to breathe." A passenger about the "Naomi" was six-year-old Daniel Kelly, one of the 600 orphans that were eventually adopted by local families living around Quebec, genealogists only being able to trace the descendants of just two of them, per author Ms. O'Gallagher. Daniel's father, Bernard Kelly, died in Ireland shortly before his intended departure for Canada, so his wife Mary emigrated with his brother, (Daniel's uncle), having left their village of Lissenduffy in Co. Roscommon. Daniel's uncle died on the voyage and his mother in the island's quarantine centre. A childless couple, Francis Tighe and his wife farmed outside the village of St. Croix de Lotbiniere, 30 miles west of Quebec City. They were French Canadians in their mid-50s, and they adopted Daniel Kelly and gave him their family name, raising him as their son. When Daniel Tighe was 28, his adoptive parents swore a will with the local notary and he was granted title to the farm where he grew up. In later years the family name was changed from Tighe to Tye, and Daniel married, raised a family, and eventually Daniel's grandchild was born, Leo Tye. All three generations lived together in the family farmhouse. Leo, who is now well into his 80s and speaks only French remembers his grandfather Daniel and a few of the stories he told with sketchy details of surviving as a Famine emigrant. Perhaps you can locate a copy of Marianna O'Gallagher's book, "Gateway to Canada." Edward Laxton's book, "The Famine Ships," contains fascinating descriptions of often harrowing voyages from Ireland to Canada and the New World.

In addition to Jeans note on the subject and for those interested here are a few links to the Grosse Isle, Canada immigration records/sites and notes. Many of my Quebec family members (out-laws) are of Irish extraction and have been in Quebec for ages, but I am not doing any research in this area. Much of the infomation will be in french but the search engines still work and give up data. Bob Cdn. ----------------------------------------------------------------- This URL will take you to the National Archives of Canada sites and links dealing with Gross Isle *http://tinyurl.com/dxjmn* Pier 21 Canada http://www.pier21.ca/index.html Archives of Quebec http://www.anq.gouv.qc.ca/conservation/dossiers.htm Genealogie Quebec: http://www.genealogie.com/ =============================================== Jean R. wrote: >SNIPPET: In the tragic story of Grosse Isle, > >