Missing Friends

March 17, 2005 10:56 AM

Missing Friends - Information Wanted - a Database of Advertisements For Irish Immigrants Published in the Boston Pilot.
Boston College has posted more than 31,000 historical entries of Irish Immigrants who were looking to reunite with family and friends between 1831 to 1921 in a searchable database. The ads were published originally in the Boston Pilot.
posted by tpl1212 (7 comments total)

If anyone's missing an irishman, there's approximately 500,000 of them in a 15-mile radius of where I live. Send me a big corrugated carton and return postage, and I'll happily leave some roophed whisky in the back yard and trap one for you.

DISCLAIMER: You must provide a certificate of neutering within 60 days of receiving your Irishman or forfeit deposit. Irishman may be irritable when removed from carton.
posted by Mayor Curley at 12:15 PM on March 17, 2005

The Pilot, America’s oldest surviving Catholic newspaper...

Just seeing the name "The Pilot" in print makes my skin crawl. My (irish catholic) mother used to subscribe to that evil newspaper. My movie options (and many other choices) as a teen were subject to her "looking it up in the pilot" I can still see her waving it around saying "The Pilot says its filth!"

I'm STILL scared.
posted by R. Mutt at 12:56 PM on March 17, 2005

Tpl1212-

Interesting post. I think I found information re: my wife's great-great-great grandfather.
posted by theknacker at 12:56 PM on March 17, 2005

Wow. Does anyone know of a comparable database for Italian immigrants?
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 2:08 PM on March 17, 2005

Wow. Does anyone know of a comparable database for Italian immigrants?

Are old police records online anywhere?
posted by Mayor Curley at 7:46 PM on March 17, 2005

Well, it's not only for Italian immigrants, but I was just trying out the search for Ellis Island Passenger Arrivals and it covers a similar period, 1892-1924 to be more specific.
posted by PY at 12:59 AM on March 18, 2005

Thanks, PY. The Ellis Island database is another amazing resource. Unfortunately it doesn't apply; I'm looking for info about Italians who entered through Boston. Those records apparently do exist in various offline archives and books, but no database.

Nevertheless, this B.C. project sure is a fascinating glimpse into the personal links that were broken between old world and new.
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 3:35 PM on March 18, 2005