Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Portuguese feast and Irish famine
I'm branching out in my family history research. It's time to do a little background reading for historical context. There are at least three families that were Irish famine immigrants so I've found a couple books about the famine and immigration. I'm also getting a book about the Portuguese in New Bedford to learn more about Frank Paul's family. I'm also going to the New York Public Library research divisions up on 42nd street to look at reference materials and some old maps of New Bedford to find the cemeteries and streets mentioned on vital records. I love this sort of thing, echoing libraries, dusty archives, pouring over documents looking for little nuggets of information. It's worth all the sneezing!
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2 comments:
I helped! I actually did something useful! :D
Hopefully those books will provide you with all the information you need/desire.
i've been reading "Great Hunger" about the famine of 1845-9. The Irish population lived on nothing but the potato, which kept them quite well-fed and healthy until the complete failure of the crop in 1846. As I was reading the book this weekend, apart from getting very angry with the British government, I was craving potatoes. I guess four to five generations of a varied diet haven't completely done away with an Irishperson's instinct to consume potatoes!
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