Having glanced back over my blog I see what a mish-mash it is. Some of it I’m pleased with. Some of it i’m not.
There is plenty of room for re-thinking what is there. Just a couple of revisions casually spring to mind.
- Should i explain in detail the labour intensive background to my orphan family reconstitutions? YeahNah, that’s all water under the bridge.
2. There’s certainly room for more on the 1858-59 New South Wales Parliamentary Report on Irish female immigration which i wrote about, in the following posts,
NEW SOUTH WALES PARLIAMENTARY ENQUIRY 1858-9 http://wp.me/p4SlVj-BT
and
H.H. Browne and the NSW PARLIAMENT REPORT http://wp.me/p4SlVj-D6,
One might use that wonderful resource, Trove, to explore for instance what the Freeman’s Journal had to say about that particular kerfuffle. http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper
Redefining our subject?
3. Most important of all, here is something that should be done, don’t you think, viz. let’s widen our subject to include those who are currently on the margins?
Have you seen any official, contemporary reference to ‘The Earl Grey Scheme’? I suspect it is label of convenience dreamt up by twentieth century historians. Please correct me if i am wrong.
Should we not add to the database at www.irishfaminememorial.org those young women from the remnants of Dublin Foundling Hospitals who were sent in advance of the workhouse scheme, in early 1848? I’m thinking of those who came by the Subraon to Sydney, and by the Mahomed Shah and William Stewart to Melbourne.
There are also those single Irish females who went to Hobart in August and November 1851 by the Beulah and the Calcutta, most of them from counties Cork and Clare. Add another 90 or so by the Louisa in January 1853 who were described as being ‘chiefly from the Irish Unions’. The question is, were these young women from Irish workhouses? To say that they came from Irish Poor Law Unions is not to say they were in a workhouse.
In Western Australia we definitely have 33 young women from MountBellew workhouse in Galway who arrived by the Palestine in 1853. They currently have a facebook page, and lots of interest in Galway itself. Were there others?
And finally, the 159 single Irish females who arrived in Port Jackson by the Lady Kennaway in December 1854. They were to become the butt of Immigration Agent Browne’s scorn, and complaint. See https://www.records.nsw.gov.au
Click on the 1850s and scroll down till December 1854, and the shipping list for the Lady Kennaway.
I think that that widening of the net is manageable.
But where my head and my heart is heading, is towards an even larger subject viz. Irish Famine women to Australia. That would include, for example, the ones identified in my 2013 talk, which you can find in my blog here,
Irish Famine women : a challenge or three+ http://wp.me/p4SlVj-Ut
Or the edited version in the online magazine Tinteán https://tintean.org.au/2014/03/06/irish-famine-women-a-challenge-or-three/
Our subject would then include Irish convict women to Hobart 1847-53, the large numbers of single females who arrived in Adelaide in the 1850s, and the many others who came to Australia as single females but as part of a larger family strategy. Anything or anyone else you can think of?
I’m genuinely interested in your views. What should be the limits of our subject for anyone working in this area? How should it be defined? Please add your comments for others to see.
trevo's Irish famine orphans 
You must be logged in to post a comment.