174: Irish Workers in 19th century Virginia by Kevin Donleavy

Of the Irish who emigrated to central Virginia in the 1840s and 1850s, we have done primary documentation of some 2,000 who took work on the railway, a large scheme which focused on building four tunnels through the Blue Ridge Mountains. We'll have a look at the actual nature of the work, and how it contrasted with their previous work back home in Ireland.
At the website Clann Mhor.org, can be seen our alphabetized spreadsheet, replete with workers' names, dates of birth and death if known, their Irish towns or counties of origin, where on the project they worked, and the referenced document sources. These sources include payroll records, census enumerations, notices in the Boston Pilot, and birth and death records.
There were some 27 Irish marriages in this era, all performed by Father Daniel Downey, who had emigrated from Downpatrick in County Down. We have documented some 42 Irish workers who died when cholera swept through the workcamps in 1854.
We will touch on other Irish workers in Virginia in the 1800s who became workers on building various canals and roadways.
Kevin Donleavy is a member of the research group Clann Mhor, and is a Past Fellow at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. He has two books in print, as well as some articles in journals.

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