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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2016
The tide of Irish immigration to the United States, which reached its crest during and following the famine years of the eighteen-forties, was second only to that of the Germans in the nineteenth century. Consequently, the Irish immigrants who arrived by the hundreds of thousands and the succeeding generations of Irish-Americans became one of the most important national groups in the American population, at the same time maintaining a keen interest in their native land.
1 Access to some of the records described herein is restricted and special authorization to use them may be necessary.
2 The symbol ‘ RG ’ and a number in parenthesis, e.g. (RG 59), refers to the National Archives designation of the record group to which the records have been assigned. A record group is a body of records that constitutes a convenient unit for control purposes and consists of the records of a bureau or some other unit of an executive department or an independent agency.
3 The minister to Ireland was raised to the rank of ambassador on 18 April 1950.
4 Correspondence, despatches, and reports for the period from 1790 to 1906 are arranged chronologically in bound volumes. The following are available: Belfast, II volumes, 1796–1906; Cork, 12 volumes, 1800–1906; Dublin, II volumes, 1790–1906; Galway, I volume, 1834–1863; and Londonderry, 3 volumes, 1835–1878. From 1906 to 1910 all incoming and outgoing correspondence, reports, etc. from Ireland were arranged in a single numerical series (I,172 volumes) along with similar material from other countries. From 1910 the files have been maintained, mostly unbound, according to a decimal classification plan. See Department of State, Division of Communications and Records, Classification of correspondence, 4th ed., Washington, 1939.Google ScholarPubMed
5 Despatches from the U.S. legation (embassy) in London to the department consist of 214 volumes for the period 1794–1906.
6 The instructions to consular representatives (201 volumes for the period from 1800 to 1906) are arranged chronologically without regard to the posts concerned except for the years 1833–1874 when they are grouped first on a geographical basis and then chronologically. The instructions to American diplomatic representatives are arranged chrono logically for all countries from 1791 to 1829 (12 volumes). From 1830 to 1906 there are 35 volumes of instructions to American diplomats stationed in London.
7 There are 27 volumes of Notes from the Department of State to the British legation in Washington for the period 1807–1906 and 114 volumes of Notes to the department from the legation from 1791 to 1906.
8 See The National Archives, Special Lists, Number 9 : List of Foreign service post records in the National Archives, compiled by Eckloff, Mark G. and Mavro, Alexander P., Washington, 1952.Google Scholar This gives a full list of the posts, together with information on the inclusive dates and volume, from which records have been accessioned by the National Archives.
9 Among the more important of these are : Belfast—General letters received, 1864–1912, General letters sent, 1882–1912, Decimal classified file, 1912–35; Ballymena, Letters sent, 1904–7; Londonderry, Official letters sent, 1858–88, General letters sent, 1909–21; Dublin, Miscellaneous letters received, 1869–71, 1889–1912, Miscellaneous correspondence sent, 1868–1912, Decimal classified file, 1912–35; Cork, Miscellaneous letters received, 1869–1912, Decimal classified file, 1912–35; and London, Notes from British government to legation, 1831–1915, Notes to British government, 1831–1915, Miscellaneous letters from legation, 1831–1915, Consular correspondence, 1907–15, and Decimal classified file, 1912–35. All of these are arranged chronologically except the decimal classified files which are arranged according to the Foreign Service of United States of America, Classification of correspondence, prepared by the Bureau of Indexes and Archives, Department of State, Washington, 1924.
10 The ‘ Miscellaneous letters ‘ series, 1533 volumes, covering the period 1789–1906.
11 The ‘ domestic letters ’ series, 289 volumes, covering the period 1792–1906.
12 These are included in the records of the bureau of customs (RG 36). There is a name index to part of the lists.
13 The names of immigrants on this list have been printed in Senate Document 118, 16th Cong., 2nd sess. For summaries of the number of immigrants to the United States from various foreign countries and the occupations of immigrants (not correlated with country of origin) see Annual reports of the secretary of state, 1820–70 (contained in the Congressional series); of the statistics bureau, treasury department, 1869- 9i; of the superintendent of immigration, 1892–4; of the commissioner general of immigration, 1895–1903; of the immigration and naturalization bureau, department of commerce and labour, 1904–12; of the department or labour, 1913–41; and of the department of justice, 1942 to the present.
14 Indexes exist for these records.
15 Especially the war department, the treasury department, the department of justice, the United States attorneys, the senate and the house of representatives.
16 Correspondence with the state department, the treasury department, the war department, the United States attorneys, and other agencies.
17 See records of the United States attorneys and marshalls (RG n8)
18 Especially the files of the secretary of war (RG 107), the adjutant general's office (RG 94) and the headquarters of the army (RG 108).
19 The records relating to these negotiations are to be found among the records of the Department of State (RG 59), the Executive Books of the secretary of war (RG 107), the provost marshal general's bureau (RG no), the judge advocate general's office of the war department (RG 153), the adjutant general's office (RG 94), and the general correspondence of the secretary of the navy (RG 80).
20 For a more detailed listing of senate records, see The National Archives, Preliminary inventory of the records of the United States senate, inventory no. 23, compiled by Hufford, Harold E. and Caudill, Watson G., Washington, 1950.Google Scholar The petitions, memorials, etc. are to be found in the general records of the department of agriculture (RG 16), the general records of the labour department (RG 174), the general records of the department of justice (RG 60), the records of the bureau of marine inspection and navigation (RG 41), the Decimal file of the Department of State (RG 59), as well as being scattered to a lesser degree though a number of other record groups.
21 By analyzing the derivation of surnames the Committee of the American Council of Learned Societies on Linguistic and National Stocks in the Population of the United States estimated the numbers of different racial stocks that constituted the population of the United States in 1790. See ‘ Report of the Committee on Linguistic and National Stocks in the Population of the United States’, in Annual report of the American Historical Association for the year 1931, i. 103–441, Washington, 1932.Google Scholar
22 Included in the records of the national park service (RG 79).
23 The agricultural censuses (1925, 1930 and 1935) (RG 29) contain data on farm tenure, farm population, farm values, production and other statistical information. The schedules of business censuses (1929 and X 935) and manufacturers censuses (1920, 1931 and 1933) contain financial data on individuals and companies engaged in various types of enterprise. The records of the court of claims (RG 123) and the district courts of the district of Columbia and the southern district of New York (RG 21) include materials relating to cases involving claims against the United States, and bankruptcy, admiralty, law, equity, criminal, patent appeals, and condemnation cases. The records of the office of pardon attorney (RG 204) contain pardon case files (1853–1943) consisting of petitions for pardons, correspondence, affidavits, exhibits and memoranda. The records of the bureau of prisons (RG 127) include case files on federal prisoners and parolees (1910–42) containing applications for paroles, records of court commitments, release progress reports, criminal histories, medical and social histories of prisoners, transcripts of minutes of parole board meetings and correspondence.
24 See Lonn, Ella, Foreigners in the confederacy (Chapel Hill, 1940)Google Scholar, for leads to Irish individuals and organizations in the confederacy army.
25 For instance, the annual report of 1895 for Willets Point, New York, listed the number of each nationality serving in the battalion of engineers at that post.
26 See Lonn, Ella, Foreigners in the Union army and navy (Baton Rouge 1951)Google Scholar, for leads on additional individuals and organizations predominantly Irish.
27 Part of the records of the bureau of marine inspection and navigation.
28 A part of this material is arranged by country or city in which the commercial attaché was stationed; information relating to Ireland is included in reports from London. Other materials are arranged by subject, commodity or country in accordance with the Classification of correspondence for filing, prepared by the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Department of Commerce, Washington, 1927.
29 See Work Materials No. 37 : ‘ Foreign trade union under the national industry recovery act’, prepared by H. D. Gresham of the foreign trade studies section of the NRA. Pages 404–51 of this study pertain to the production costs, price trends, cost of importing flax into Ireland, the quality of flaxes, trends in unit value of United States imports from Ireland and other aspects of the Irish linen industry.
30 Commodities and countries are indicated by code classifications; for example, flax manufacturers are indicated by commodity number 3399 and the code designation for Ireland is 16. Northern Ireland is included as a part of the United Kingdom. Code designations, statistical tables of foreign commerce and general summary tables are to be found in Department of commerce, Bureau of foreign and domestic commerce, Foreign commerce and navigation of the United States, compiled annually.
31 These logs and journals, which relate chiefly to weather conditions, are arranged by number and indexed by name of ship.
32 These maps were prepared or accumulated by the following agencies : war department general staff (RG 165); office of naval intelligence (RG 38) and United States senate (RG 46).
