Fleeing the Great Irish Famine by Immigration to Canada in 1847

Dear Family and Friends,

Our Buchanan family came from County Tyrone Ireland in 1847. Because Grosse Isle was already beyond capacity, they were sent up the river to Kingston for quarantine aboard the ship. The father and a baby grand daughter died there of the fever.

After quarantine the men found work harvesting at Esquesing, then the women and children spent the winter at North Easthope while the men searched for free land further north. Then the women and children joined them in the area that became Donegal, Elma Township, Perth County, about 30 km north of Stratford.

An elderly cousin said "How they survived for those first few years I will never know. They settled in a forest of huge trees that needed to be cleared to plant crops and gardens."

This video is an excellent account of the government quarantine station on Grosse Isle, especially as it tried to handle the flood of people fleeing the Great Irish Famine, which reached its peak in 1847. It really gives a sense of what it was like.

Grosse Île: The Quarantine Island Every Ship Had to Stop At
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DTCXoHSFX4

Love,

Bill / Dad / Grandpa