Removal of Irish Ancestors - how do I follow their footsteps?

Influx and Removals

What happened to our Irish ancestors?
Like many folks here in Canada some of my ancestors moved from Ireland to England or Scotland for work and subsequently returned or were “removed” back to Ireland making it very difficult if not impossible to trace their "footsteps" records/.

Removal
Starting in the 1840's, English parishes provided their own relief to the poor, paid for by locals. Those locals didn’t want outsiders swarming in and freeloading on their relief, which is understandable, so a system was set up whereby people could only claim relief in a parish where they had “settlement” - which was nearly always their birthplace. If their settlement place was elsewhere, the parish could arrange for their transport to that place, and this didn’t just apply to Irish, but to English people too.

In the later 1800s, removals were changed to only apply to people with less than five years residence, and this was reduced further later. A report on this topic quoted many English ratepayers wanting removals to cease because it cost more to remove people than to provide temporary relief.

Removals caused a lot of headaches for Irish authorities, especially in Dublin and Belfast, as English parishes typically sent people back by the cheapest route to the nearest Irish port, even if that was far from the person’s Irish birthplace. And in the early 1800s, when people were being removed even after many years living in England, or because a wife claimed relief when her husband had gone looking for work elsewhere, they were understandably upset at being expelled, leaving the Irish authorities to try to resolve things.

These are all out of copyright and available on the internet. All I have done is collect them ~ Digger Deb ~


files on ONEDRIVE (click here)