That is all too tragic to comprehend - so many young girls from age 14 to 20 from all over Ireland being sent to Australia ...Barefoot and pregnant ! hopefully just the occasional one, even with parents still living . Suppose it was their only hope of survival during that awful famine. Golding ----- Original Message ----- From: "Maurie O'Connor" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2009 12:05 PM Subject: Re: [IRL-WICKLOW] List Of Names From The Rathdown Union CountyWicklowTo Australia 1849/50 - Catherine Byrne > Now, did I miss this one on > http://www.irishfaminememorial.org/orphans/ships_nsw.htm, or was I > confused > by all the Byrnes? > > Catherine Byrnes, 15 Years > Native place Dublin, RC > Parents Christopher & Rosanna (both dead) > Rathdowne Union, Empl. etc. etc. (putting this in for Cara's benefit). > > Have you contacted Tom Power from the Irish Famine Commemoration > Committee. > Contact details on above website. He's a very nice gentleman and > extremely > helpful. And he's also in regular contact with Trevor McClaughlin, author > of Barefoot & Pregnant. There could be some further information regarding > Catherine Byrnes which is not on the website. Or how to get information on > workhouse records. > > Just googled Rathdown Union Workhouse - > http://www.nationalarchives.ie/research/poorlaw.html says "National > Archives > holds several very complete collections of workhouse records relating to > ... > Rathdown Union". I have no idea how to access these records from > Australia, > but someone else might be able to advise. > > A lot of other interesting looking sites show up with a Google search. > Look > at http://myhome.ispdr.net.au/~mgrogan/cork/jane_workhouse.htm for a > description of the surviving inmate records. Sadly, no records remain for > Tuam, Galway from where my g-g-grandmother and her sister came to > Australia. > > Cheers > Barbara > > > > > > > > *************************************** > 1- Only leave in the body of the mail what is relevant to your answer > > 2- Change the SUBJECT LINE to suit the body of your own Mail to List. > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message > >

I'm not sure where the title 'Barefoot & Pregnant' came from - not from the girls who came here. Earl Grey came up with the scheme to (a) empty the Irish workhouses and therefore lower the costs to the parishes, and (b) to provide brides for all those unruly single Irishmen in the colony. The workhouses were asked to put forward the names of suitable girls (and I don't think a pregnant lass would have stood a chance), and to provide each girl with travelling clothes and something to put them in, as well as paying for the cost of a chaperone and a doctor to accompany them. Australia was to pay for the cost of the passage - but Earl Grey neglected to tell Australian authorities that little fact until the scheme was well underway - and that caused a lot of resentment here. It's interesting that each wave of immigrants of different ethnic backgrounds have been made scapegoats for whatever ails this land of ours - economic problems, culture changes, tensions between different groups. And the Irish were the first! They weren't really wanted here by 'respectable' people, most were of the 'wrong' religion, were presumed to be a bad influence, etc. etc. These poor girls received a very bad press. And they just weren't wanted here. The book title might better describe the expectations that were placed upon them by their opponents. My own g-g-grandmother (17) and her sister (16) came here from Co. Galway - mother and father both alive. Neither (to my knowledge anyway) were pregnant but probably a pretty good chance that both were barefoot when they went into the Tuam workhouse. The girls, both working in the Wollongong district at £8 p.a. saved up their money and in 1855 brought their mother, Mary, and younger sister to Australia, father having died in the meantime. Mary then set about bring out the grown-up children of her sister to Australia (my g-g-g married one of them) and reunited what was left of the family. Mary, my g-g-g-grandmother died at Newcastle at the age of 104 - of old age, rather than starvation and overwork, at the home of her only surviving daughter (the youngest). And more than likely owned shoes. My g-g-grandparents ended up in the Grafton area and had a huge family of girls. Her sister, Mary (the younger) went with them and married an Italian with a few gold mines (one named Mary's Home) and had a very comfortable life. He employed his brother-in-law, and other family members. When my g-g-grandfather, then a widower, died in Sydney, his brother-in-law paid for his funeral and burial plot at Rookwood. I can't imagine how it would feel to leave my country and what I knew to go to somewhere across the other side of the world with the likelihood of never being able to return. But these young girls did it. Some of them might not have ended up in much better circumstances than they would have been in had they stayed in Ireland. But for most of those, the chances of dying from cold would not have been an issue. Some became quite successful in business. And many went on to lead fairly ordinary lives, pretty much like a lot of us. The ABC made a doco called Barefoot & Pregnant - more or less 'hosted' by descendents of some of these girls. Worth watching, if you can get a copy. Cheers Barbara

Barbara Thank you for your message. Suppose it may have been quite an adveture for those selected to go to Australia but still heart rending - getting a one way ticket. Wonderful to hear of the girls keeping in touch with their roots and saving to bring parents and siblings. Sadly we still have the same thing happening with refugees seeking asylum wherever they will be accepted.... in spite of the major advances in economic and social development ----200 years later ! Will look up the book - probably on Amazon Rgds.......Golding ----- Original Message ----- From: "Maurie O'Connor" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, March 13, 2009 2:57 AM Subject: Re: [IRL-WICKLOW] List Of Names From The RathdownUnionCountyWicklowTo Australia 1849/50 - Catherine Byrne I'm not sure where the title 'Barefoot & Pregnant' came from - not from the girls who came here. Earl Grey came up with the scheme to (a) empty the Irish workhouses and therefore lower the costs to the parishes, and (b) to provide brides for all those unruly single Irishmen in the colony. The workhouses were asked to put forward the names of suitable girls (and I don't think a pregnant lass would have stood a chance), and to provide each girl with travelling clothes and something to put them in, as well as paying for the cost of a chaperone and a doctor to accompany them. Australia was to pay for the cost of the passage - but Earl Grey neglected to tell Australian authorities that little fact until the scheme was well underway - and that caused a lot of resentment here. It's interesting that each wave of immigrants of different ethnic backgrounds have been made scapegoats for whatever ails this land of ours - economic problems, culture changes, tensions between different groups. And the Irish were the first! They weren't really wanted here by 'respectable' people, most were of the 'wrong' religion, were presumed to be a bad influence, etc. etc. These poor girls received a very bad press. And they just weren't wanted here. The book title might better describe the expectations that were placed upon them by their opponents. My own g-g-grandmother (17) and her sister (16) came here from Co. Galway - mother and father both alive. Neither (to my knowledge anyway) were pregnant but probably a pretty good chance that both were barefoot when they went into the Tuam workhouse. The girls, both working in the Wollongong district at £8 p.a. saved up their money and in 1855 brought their mother, Mary, and younger sister to Australia, father having died in the meantime. Mary then set about bring out the grown-up children of her sister to Australia (my g-g-g married one of them) and reunited what was left of the family. Mary, my g-g-g-grandmother died at Newcastle at the age of 104 - of old age, rather than starvation and overwork, at the home of her only surviving daughter (the youngest). And more than likely owned shoes. My g-g-grandparents ended up in the Grafton area and had a huge family of girls. Her sister, Mary (the younger) went with them and married an Italian with a few gold mines (one named Mary's Home) and had a very comfortable life. He employed his brother-in-law, and other family members. When my g-g-grandfather, then a widower, died in Sydney, his brother-in-law paid for his funeral and burial plot at Rookwood. I can't imagine how it would feel to leave my country and what I knew to go to somewhere across the other side of the world with the likelihood of never being able to return. But these young girls did it. Some of them might not have ended up in much better circumstances than they would have been in had they stayed in Ireland. But for most of those, the chances of dying from cold would not have been an issue. Some became quite successful in business. And many went on to lead fairly ordinary lives, pretty much like a lot of us. The ABC made a doco called Barefoot & Pregnant - more or less 'hosted' by descendents of some of these girls. Worth watching, if you can get a copy. Cheers Barbara *************************************** 1- Only leave in the body of the mail what is relevant to your answer 2- Change the SUBJECT LINE to suit the body of your own Mail to List. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Hi Golding, I wonder if they did think of it as an adventure. And it certainly must have been heart-rending for them. The poor little beggars had so little to look forward to in Ireland and the horrors a lot of them would have gone through, what with the famine, typhus,etc!! I think they were incredibly brave. I look at my own children, now 23 to 29, and can't imagine how these girls could have gone off into the unknown at 14 or 15. Or boys of 16, 18, whatever, could have gone to war. They were only children! And the really tragic thing is that children today are still having to make the same sort of decisions. The book, by the way, is basically a list of all the girls who came to Australia under the scheme. Vol.2 is the updated version with names added that were missed the first time (like my Alice and Mary) and with any additional information added to the names in Vol.1 which descendents had passed on to the author. Perhaps you might have a look at it (in library perhaps) before you purchase. Are you in Sydney by any chance? (Or even Australia?_There is a memorial service at Hyde Park Barracks every year (August from memory) for the famine orphans. Lots of descendents go apparently. Cheers Barbara

Barbara Thank you once again- Sorry I'm not in your lovely country . I was born in Co Wicklow & now living in Dublin. - getting ready to celebrate St Patricks Day - in lovely springtime weather ! Time to set the potatoes ! Will have a look in the library . Cheers.......Golding .