Genealogy: Beyond the BMD: Immigration

In the 1800s when more and more people were emigrating from Great Britain to Canada, Australia, the United States and beyond, Emigrant Societies were founded to help emigrants with passage, and/or to help them once they got to their destination.

The Montreal Emigrant Society was founded in 1831 to help with passage, housing, food and jobs to immigrants from Ireland and Great Britain. Often once landed in Montreal, they were given aid to settle elsewhere in Canada.

Montreal Emigrant Society 1832, Img 1606

You can search the nominal database at LAC, read all the directions as images with a higher resolution are on a different site.

The Irish Emigrant Society of New York was founded in 1841. You can read a 1938 article about it at JSTOR by registering for free. The Emigrant Savings Bank was established in 1850 by members of the Irish Emigrant Society and some of the records can be found on Ancestry. You can read about it there without signing up. The savings bank records can also be seen at some libraries, including Library of Congress... see WorldCat for locations.

Check libraries and historical societies (where your ancestors came from as well as where they settled) for account books of local emigrant aid societies.

Relevant Links

Immigrants Sponsored by the Montreal Emigrant Society, 1832(database)

Irish Emigrant Society of New York – free to read at JSTOR

Names of persons and sureties indebted to the Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company, Salt Lake City, from 1850 to 1877 inclusive

List of persons who received loans from the Island and Highland Emigration Society to enable them to emigrate from their native country to Victoria AU, 1852-1854

Info on Glasgow Emigration Society 1821, including link to index of names

Emigration: free, assisted and full-paying passages :together with the conditions for obtaining free land grants, rules for emigration clubs 1879

Here and there: first report on the work of the Self-Help Emigration Society 1886

Number of persons sent by named Emigration Societies in Great Britain

History of Hibernian Society for the Relief of Emigrants from Ireland

118th anniversary: Hibernian Society of Philadelphia for the relief of emigrants from Ireland

Related Posts: Immigrants

I used to live in a small border town, and we were always going back and forth from Canada to the US. We got to know a lot of the customs officers and they were pretty easy going since we were all "regulars". One time when I was going across, the long-time officer on the US side, who was stuck there most of the day, asked if I would get him come cigars on my way back. It was like that. The worst was in summer when they had student help... they didn't know us, were more by the book and real sticklers.

A customs officer is a federal position, therefore in the Sessional Papers of the Dominion of Canada their names, stations and wages were listed in the Auditor General's Report.

The Department of Immigration was responsible for advertising for settlers, and making sure they arrived safely and were cared for. Immigration officers and staff were also listed in the Auditor General's Report, under the Department of the Interior.

My husband's mother's family immigrated to Canada in 1900 from Galicia, Austria. Canadian immigration agencies advertised for hard working families that were willing to farm for free land. They were taken to Hamburg where they were put on a ship to Halifax, from there put on a train to Winnipeg. They stayed there a while before moving on to Saskatchewan. At that time Mr. W F McCreary was the Commissioner of Immigration in Winnipeg and his report in the Sessional Papers of the Dominion of Canada for 1901 listed several people responsible for locating, transporting, visiting and feeding the Galicians (as well as other immigrant groups).