Emigrated from Liverpool

BluePlanet

Question.

Back in 1850, i have an ancestor that left Ireland for USA.

There's a record in one of those genealogy websites that says:

Immigrated from Ireland to United States, 20 May 1850. U. S. Famine Irish Passenger Index 1840-1851, Sailed from Liverpool, England to New York City, United States

My ancestor was originally from County Wicklow, not sure where exactly.

Now would they have sailed from Dublin to Liverpool, and then onto USA?

Or the fact that they sailed from Liverpool, does that suggest they were living in England at the time?

Also, should i expect to find corroborating evidence within the Passenger Index, detailing the names of the children that accompanied him, as well as the missus obviously?

And further to that, if those other names don't exist within the Passenger Index, am i down the wrong rabbit hole?

Or is it case that record keeping was not very rigorous?

pinkypinky

It could be all of those things.

Irish people very often went first to Liverpool and then to the USA.

Sometimes they worked in Liverpool for a time to earn money and then went on.

There are no records of travel between Dublin and Liverpool because they were 2 cities in the same country. Fares were cheap and sailings very regular.

It also happened that families did not travel together - maybe the husband went first, established a base, earned money and sent it home, then some more of the family came.

The passengers' lists that exist are by no means comprehensive.

So in short, what you have is someone who might or might not be your ancestors on a list. You need to do more work in both America and Ireland to try narrow it down, but you may not find the proof needed to determine if that is your person on that list.

VirginiaB

In the mid 19c, Liverpool was the main port of emigration for the Irish and others. People went from all over Ireland to Liverpool and may have stayed for some time or just briefly in a boarding house before departure. Packet ships with regular schedules made it possible to minimize the boarding house stay.

Passenger records when people arrived in New York, for instance, are far from 100%. But the best in my opinion is the following. It's on Ancestry and perhaps other sites. It includes images. Note that before 1855 there was no Castle Garden or Ellis Island. Those came later. New York was the number one port of entry for immigrants.

New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957