Jana and friends - Here is the URL for the Emigrant Savings Bank database: http://genexchange.com/esb/index.cfm Chris Kirwan ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jana Black" <janab@slip.net> To: <KIRWIN-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, April 09, 2000 12:53 AM Subject: [KIRWIN] Immigrant Savings Bank > Hello all, > > This was posted to another list - could be of interest to some of us ;] > Jana > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > There's a new area of Irish info material I've been promising myself to look into. I don't know if > you ever heard of the Immigrant Savings Bank in N.Y.C. It was founded, during the Irish influx, by > a group of educated Irish business men. As I said, most of the Irish could not read or write. They > lived in crowded quarters. They worked and tried to save money. The problem was, where to hide the > money so it would be safe. Putting it under the mattress was unsafe because that's the first place > a crook would look. The bank opened with a different way of making deposits and withdrawals. When > doing business, the Mick had a code he gave the > teller. He gave his name, verbally, and perhaps his mother's maiden name. There were about 3 or 4 > different, personal, pieces of family info on his ledger card. > Sometimes, the village or county he migrated from was listed. Needless to say, the bank became a big > success and is still in business today. Recently, the bank > wanted to utilize the basement space the old records were stored and was making plans to throw them > out. Fortunately, someone with a brain in his head stepped in and put a stop to the plans. The > N.Y.C. Public Library was contacted and asked if it wanted the records. It said, "Yes". Its taking > time for the library to sort out the records so they can be accessed. However," They say the > records are in pretty good shape and have quite a bit of info, that maybe cannot be found > elsewhere". > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > I seem to recall first catching wind of this about a year ago.... But, this post is brand new... If > anyone learns the status of plans to make these records available, would you post it to the list, > please? >