You might also want to check the UK census for 1861 (especially Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester, Durham, Cumbria, Peeblesshire, and West, Mid, and East Lothian, which were centers of the textile industry and mining, where may Famine-era Irish emigrants found the work that eventually made it possible for them to finance departure to North America) to see whether that was in fact an intermediate stop for your ancestors. Other considerations: 1851 was still within the Famine period, although almost at the end of it. People who left Ireland that late in the game tended to be somewhat better off than those who left in 1846-47 (after all, the former did survive the worst years of the Famine, which generally required a few assets--especially a lease--to secure food as scarcity bid up prices) and/or they had very young children or elderly family members for whom they felt responsibility that prevented an earlier departure. Neither young children nor elderly family members may have s! urvived to 1851, so any family your immigrant ancestors may have had may have been subsequent to their departure from Ireland. On the other hand, if they were lucky enough to survive to 1851 regardless of the reason, things may have looked up economically for them by then. By 1851, there was an actual shortage of labor to work land in Leitrim because of emigration and the tremendous loss of life that had already occurred prior to that date, which reduced the population in some areas by as much as 65%. They may have been able to afford ship tickets by that time that would have been beyond their means before. Keep in mind also that people who could afford it tended to cross the Irish Sea to Liverpool or Glasgow for their journeys to the New World; ships from those ports were bigger and more likely to be capable of staying afloat for the 4-5 weeks that passage to New York took in that era. I would strongly recommend for you to see whether you can discover a lease by examining or paying someone to examine records in the National Archives for you. Since they would have been living close to their relatives in the normal course of things, that would give you another whole set of names to research that may turn out to be related in collateral lines. Nancy Gray -------------- Original message from "Jack Reynolds" <daisy.pat@verizon.net>: -------------- > Nancy Thank you for your reply. A number of people have replied with > basically the same thought you had. Now I am not sure if I will do it or > not. My GGrandfather and his wife left in 1851 for life somewhere and then > appear in NY in 1865 and stayed in RI the rest of their lives. > I have been researching exclusively in the USA since I don't know where in > Ireland they stayed in the intervening years and will continue the search > here. > Thanks again, Jack > > -----Original Message----- > From: irl-leitrim-bounces@rootsweb.com > [mailto:irl-leitrim-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Nancy & Ted > Sent: Sunday, October 08, 2006 4:22 PM > To: irl-leitrim@rootsweb.com; IRL-LEITRIM-L@rootsweb.com > Subject: Re: [LEITRIM] Are there any Ireland addresses listed on > theinternet. > > I know a guy who sent letters out, and when he got to Ireland, though they > had not answered him, people would say, "We got your letter!" It wasn't > that they weren't interested, just busy, as another writer said. > My impression with some of my relations a generation or so back was that > they were related to Everybody in the area, and Big Deal, so what else is > new? It was like saying, "We have running water." Not out of the ordinary, > > so they couldn't figure out what the big fuss was--your neighbors are your > relatives, it's always been that way. > Nancy > > ****************** > Some County Leitrim websites: > http://www.connorsgenealogy.net/Leitrim/ > http://www.rootsweb.com/~irllet/ > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > IRL-LEITRIM-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > ****************** > Some County Leitrim websites: > http://www.connorsgenealogy.net/Leitrim/ > http://www.rootsweb.com/~irllet/ > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > IRL-LEITRIM-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message