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Volume III of Erin’s Sons extends the period of coverage to 1858 and lists approximately 7,000 additional Irish-born residents of Atlantic Canada. Like the other volumes in the series, it is based on a wide variety of genealogical sources, including church records, cemetery inscriptions, marriage and burial records, newspapers, census records, and ships’ passenger lists.

Scattered throughout the volume there are out-of-the-way records pertaining to rescued and quarantined passengers, deserters, and runaways; and equally obscure records of individuals who suffered from anti-Irish prejudice during the 1840s. Many entries date from the 1850s, with earlier years showing up in land records, passenger lists, and military records.

The largest groups of records included here are based on newspaper notices of marriages and deaths, regimental records, and land records. The single largest collection-- newspaper notices of marriages and deaths, 1854-1858, extracted from newspapers published in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland--also contains the greatest amount of genealogical detail—place and date of birth and death, date of emigration from Ireland, date of marriage, and names of family members. The regimental records, in particular the 97th Regiment, 1827-1853, show the dispersal of the soldiers at the end of their service and include date and place of birth, with date, place, and reason for discharge; while the land records, including some 900 petitions for grants of land in Nova Scotia, give the name of the petitioner, the date of the petition, sometimes the place of origin in Ireland, and the area of settlement in Nova Scotia.

Also included in the book are maps showing the areas of peak migration from Ireland to Atlantic Canada, an index of surnames, and an index of ships.

See also the other volumes in this series:
Volume I
Volume II