Seeking an ancestor - emigrated during the Famine

[shellyesq]

There are a list of people in Hannah's probate papers who were noted to be the next of kin.  They may all be her children, but it might be worth a look to make sure none were siblings.

[AndrewMcK]

Thank you friends - some responses to the helpful info and questions.

Marriage license didn't turn up in the Glastonbury town records, though I did get a death cert that state her father was William (?) born in Ireland, and mother's maiden name "unknown", also born in Ireland. That was a tiny bit more than we knew. Not sure how my family knows the marriage date and place so surely. My 93-year old great aunt has kept what her mom handed down quite well, but even so, some stuff is simply accepted factoids that might not be spot-on.

Sadly those passenger records don't overlap the 1852/54 likely emigration date. I don't know why I think she was orphaned, and I wish I could figure out who took her, and who greeted her, and where in the hell in these United States they came through.

I don't know that I've seen 1860 US census data anywhere, at least via Ancestry. We were about to start killing each other in large numbers then, so I don't know that it actually got done. If so, I'd surely love to see it as it would be telling indeed. I've not figured out what Catholic Church they attended here, but there must have been one and there aren't that many. On that.

And I didn't know about her probate papers, but since she had 10 kids, I'm thinking that those are probably next of kin. I'm grateful that we have pics of her and her husband, but she arrived in a cloud of mystery, at least here in the 21st century.

I am grateful for the suggestions and the collective wisdom!

[shellyesq]

Yes, the 1860 census was done and is available on Ancestry.  familysearch.org also has transcriptions of it.

[AndrewMcK]

Hmmm - there's a lot of Hannah Hennesseys that show up in the 1860 census but none that match her closely enough for me to scream "that's her!".

One bit of wisdom that would be helpful - anyone know what ports took in the most refugees from the famine, and perhaps any other general tendencies that might help me narrow it down? Even better if I could nail it for the years 1852-54; I haven't the foggiest notion of where I'd find that info here, but I'll start googling in the morning.

Just tossing it out there in case that is ready knowledge to some of the folks here - and again, my humble thanks for the info and assists!

[crowsfeet]

Not sure how much help this idea would be:

Would the family have come into the USA through Canada? Seem to recall watching a programme where many Irish famine people went via Canada.

Regards Crowsfeet