I mentioned this in another thread...it is something I only heard once and that is on an Irish Rovers special years ago. They could walk on and off under their own steam (well, some of them) and that is why so many came so cheaply here..maybe free....they used to use lots of granite for ballast that built many churches etc. Irish were cheaper and even turned a bit of profit. Google this..I did last night and there is lots....timber boats used to sail from Canada and cotton ships from New Orleans..which is why a lot of Irish went to New Orleans..but many many died in the swamps working on canals etc. Stories of semi-corpses wandering in the winter in Montreal...not pretty...

I also found that my ancestors seemed to go straight to Iowa and wondered how in another thread..but apparently farmers were desparate for laborers and sent ships or railroad cars or whatever to pick them up at the ports....you don't hear about this...only the tenements...and you hear and hear again that the famine broke them down so much they couldn't stand the thought of farming again but that never rang true with me...I think they just couldn't for the most part escape the tenement life for a few generations...

Anyone with family stories? Probably not because they wouldn't talk about it. But I think it is important to gather up the stories as well as we can....mg