I could never figure out how Irish, including my family, ended up in Iowa after the potato famine..how they could afforded the passage.they might have escaped the tenements of New York...I am a little vague..
Anyway, there is something in here that explains it...that the farmers of Iowa and I think other states put out a plea and apparently arranged transportation for laborers.
I also have always wondered how starving people could afford to leave. They weren't rich to start with and if you had starving children you probably would buy food rather than tickets because you just wouldn't have the money.
The Irish Rovers had a special years ago that explained some of it. I think landlords paid for some of their tenants to go. And after a while families sent for each other but there wouldn't have been that many here to start with at the start of the famine.
But here is what the Irish Rovers special said...that the passengers were used as ballast and saved the boat owners the expense of unloading rocks or whatever else was used as they could walk themselves out. Who knows..maybe some passages were free...it is a little disconcerting to think of one's ancestors as ballast but oh well. mg