The Irish Invasion

The Center for Immigration Research (CIR) at the Balch Institute created this series to promote access to information about immigrants from Ireland to the United States during the era of the Irish Potato Famine, 1846-1851. It was extracted from ship passenger lists in the records of the U.S. Customs Service (NARA Record Group 36). These materials identify 604,596 persons who arrived in the Port of New York, 1846-1851, and the ships on which they arrived. Approximately 70 percent of the passenger records list Ireland as the native country. The other 32 countries include Canada, Brazil, Saint Croix, Russia, Morocco, the United States and countries throughout Europe. These records include passengers aboard ships with both Irish and non-Irish ports of embarkation for emigration to America. The series consists of four electronic files. The primary file is the Famine Irish Passenger Record File (FIPAS) that includes passenger lists with the personal names involved in this wave of immigration. Three additional files supplement it and serve as electronic code files. They are the Famine Irish Manifest Header File, the Famine Irish Port Code List and the Famine Irish Country Code List. Each of the FIPAS records contains data on a passenger and may include name, age, town of last residence, destination, passenger arrival date, and codes for passenger's sex, occupation, literacy, native country, transit status, travel compartment, passenger port of embarkation, and the identification number for the ship manifest.