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| Gilfoy migration to the United States | + |
Many destitute Irish families in the 18th and 19th centuries decided to leave their homeland, which had in many ways been scarred by English colonial rule. One of the most frequent destinations for these families was North America where it was possible for an Irish family to own their own parcel of land. Many of the early settlers did find land awaiting them in British North America, or even later in America, but for the majority of immigrants that arrived as a result of the Great Potato Famine of the late 1840s the ownership of land was often a long way off. These Irish people were initially put to work on such industrial projects as the building of bridges, canals, and railroads, or they worked at manufacturing positions within factories. Whenever they arrived, the Irish made enormous contributions to the infant nations of Canada and the United States. Some of the earliest immigrants to bearer the name of Gilfoy were found through extensive research of immigration and passenger lists:
Gilfoy Settlers in United States in the 19th Century
- John Gilfoy, who landed in Allegany (Allegheny) County, Pennsylvania in 1873 1
| Gilfoy migration to Canada | + |
Gilfoy Settlers in Canada in the 19th Century
- Patrick Gilfoy, who arrived in Nova Scotia in 1828
- Alice Gilfoy, who arrived in Nova Scotia in 1829
| Related Stories | + |
| Sources | + |
- Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)
