Monday, April 9, 2012

A record of Joe Burke's emigration in 1909?



In my last post I mentioned that I hadn't managed to find any record of the Burkes on the passengers lists of ships that crossed the Atlantic. Well, my luck may have turned!

According to the 1910 US Census, Joe Burke (the last of the family to emigrate) arrived in the US in 1909. Using this date I began searching the passenger lists and I've found a Joe Burke who emigrated from Croom (the local town to Kilmacow) to the US in 1909 (above is an image of the first page of the record - Jow Burke is on the second line). While it's impossible to be 100% sure that it's the same person the evidence is pretty convincing.

There is a lot of detail in these passenger lists. Joseph Burke gives his age as 20 -our Joe would have been 25 but many of the Burkes knocked a few years of their age with many of them having incorrect birth years on their gravestones. For the emigrants it may have been to do with making themselves more employable or eligible for certain jobs. Joseph gives his home town as Croom and his next of kin as "Mother - Mrs Mary Burke, Croom, Co. Limerick". In those times I would have expected a son to list his father as next of kin but our Joe's father died in 1908 so this points to us being on the right track. He lists his occupation as "farmer" and his onward destination as "Chicago". He has a ticket for onward travel to Chicago and is joining his brother Thomas Burke who lives at 3431 Butler St. Chicago. Again, this all fits our Joe Burke. He is described as being in good health, 5ft 10inches in height, fair complexion, brown hair and blue eyes.

I've searched the Irish 1901 census and there are only 5 "Joseph Burkes" listed and our Joe is the only one who would have been eemigrating in his twenties in 1909.

Presuming this is the right Joe Burke, he travelled on a ship called the "SS Caronia" which sailed from Queenstown (now called Cobh) on September 15th 1909 arriving a week later in New York on the 22nd. This was a Cunard liner. For someone who more than likely never travelled more than 20 or 30 miles from his home it must have been an amazing experience to step on to an ocean liner and a week later disembark in New York.