Why is St Patrick's Day such a time of celebration and remembrance in Canada?
Maybe the following statistics will give you a clue.
From 1825 to 1970, 1.2 million Irish immigrants arrived in Canada, and at least half of those in the period from 1831–1850.
By 1867, the Irish were the second largest ethnic group (after the French), and comprised 24% of Canada's population.
In my neighbourhood of Ottawa-Gatineau, there is the famous McCabe List: Early Irish in the Ottawa Valley.
At http://www.dippam.ac.uk/ied/records/22293dpf, there is a list of the McCabe Irish which gives county, parish, townland of origin, number of male and female children and names and addresses of relatives in the homeland for some 700 mostly Irish families who were in the vicinity of Bytown (now known as Ottawa) on 5 February 1829.
Check the Canadian Week in Review every Monday morning for the latest in Genealogy, Heritage, and History news in Canada.
If you missed this week’s edition, it is at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/03/canadian-news-in-review-09-march-2015.html
It’s the ONLY news blog of its kind in Canada!
It has been a regular post every Monday morning since
April 23, 2012.
