Sign up for Genealogy Pointers »

This Family Archive CD is composed of ten volumes of Irish passenger lists naming approximately 60,000 immigrants, the earliest list dating from 1735, the latest 1871. Originally published by GPC, the majority of these lists derive from home-grown Irish sources. And this is what makes the CD remarkable, because the Irish generally did not maintain emigration records. In fact, what information we do have on Irish immigrants comes almost entirely from American sources, and prior to the 1890s that information is woefully spare, usually limited to name, age, occupation, and sex (in accordance with the immigration laws of the time).

The exodus from Ireland took place on a scale of such magnitude that the identities of the immigrants have all but been lost in statistics. In these books--that is to say, on this CD--many of these identities have been restored, some fleshed out with the names of relatives, precise places of origin, itineraries, physical appearance, financial status, etc. Deriving from widespread and disparate sources, it is unlikely that the researcher would have access to all this information, which is here presented in a convenient, easy-to-use CD, complete with an electronic name index, at a fraction of the cost of the books!

Listed below, in chronological order, are the ten volumes included on this CD:
1. Emigrants from Ireland to America, 1735-1743: A Transcription of the Report of the Irish House of Commons into Enforced Emigration to America.
2. Irish Passenger Lists 1803-1806: Lists of Passengers Sailing from Ireland to America.
3. An Alphabetical Index to Ulster Emigration to Philadelphia 1803-1850.
4. Passengers from Ireland: Lists of Passengers Arriving at American Ports Between 1811 and 1817 (Transcribed from The Shamrock or Hibernian Chronicle).
5. Irish Emigration Lists 1833-1839: Lists of Emigrants Extracted from the Ordnance Survey Memoirs for Counties Londonderry and Antrim.
6. Irish Emigration to New England Through the Port of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, 1841 to 1849.
7. A List of Alien Passengers, Bonded from January 1, 1847 to January 1, 1851, for the Use of the Overseers of the Poor in the Commonwealth [Massachusetts].
8. Emigrants from Ireland, 1847-1852: State-Aided Emigration Schemes from Crown Estates in Ireland.
9. Irish Passenger Lists 1847-1871: Lists of Passengers Sailing from Londonderry to America on Ships of the J.& J. Cooke Line and the McCorkell Line.
10. Irish Emigrants in North America [1775-1825].

System Requirements: You must have a CD-ROM drive, and in order to read the CD you must use either the Family Archive Viewer (version 4.0 or higher), which is available as a free download at http://www.genealogical.com/content/dlfav6.html, or Family Tree Maker for Windows, version 4.0 or higher (Family Tree Maker software can be ordered from www.FamilyTreeMaker.com).

To access information on our Family Archive CDs using the Family Archive Viewer:

1. Install the Family Archive Viewer CD or download it from http://www.genealogy.com/dlfav6.html.
2. Start the Viewer if it is not already running
3. Insert the CD you wish to view into the CD-ROM drive. If you have 2 or more CD-ROM drives, the CD must be placed in the first one.
4. The CD should open automatically, but users of later versions of the Family Archive Viewer must click the CD/magnifying glass icon in the top toolbar (above the template in some versions) to read the CD.
5. When the screen entitled "About this Family Archive" appears, click OK where prompted.

To access information on our Family Archive CDs using Family Tree Maker:

1. Start your Family Tree Maker and open a Family File. (If the program is already running, skip to Step 2.)
2. Insert the CD in your computer's CD-ROM drive. (If you have 2 or more CD-ROM drives, the CD must be placed in the first one.)
3. From the View menu, select Family Finder, or select the Family Finder icon from the toolbar.
4. For FTM 2005, FTM 2006, or Version 16, you must go to the View menu, select Data CD, then View CD. For FTM 2008 or higher, you must download the Family Archive Viewer.

To search the CD for names, select the Search Expert button in the top right of your screen, then select "Search this archive for someone NOT from your Family File." You can also search for names by using the Index.

Note: If a window opens that contains a list of files on the CD, simply close it.