The records I have found for my family in Ireland, England, and Montreal paint a picture of the challenges that all immigrants face. Arthur Sherry (1799-1846), my great-great-grandfather, grew up on a flax farm in Northern Ireland, his father Cornelius (1769-1869) struggling to make ends meet as cotton replaced Irish linen.
Arthur moved to Ireland’s port city Dundalk to become a merchant. He married Elizabeth Callan in 1821, having five children in nine years. A Dublin news source puts Arthur in Debtors Court shortly before his decision to immigrate.
They stopped in England for Eliza to give birth to their fifth child in 1832, and then on to Montreal to start a new life. Their last child was born in Montreal in 1833.
Learning French and getting a job as a clerk while Eliza cared for seven children, stretched this family to the limit. The loss of his wife Eliza in 1834 is recorded in the records of the city’s Notre Dame de Montreal.
Arthur placed four of his children in an orphanage, keeping Arthur, Jr., who then died in 1835, probably from typhoid. Arthur literally “disappeared” after this, a big mystery on the family tree.
John, my great-grandfather (1824-1894), take a job in a tailor shop in Troy, NY, working his way up to ownership of Squires, Sherry & Galusha wholesale grocers, its sales from Pennsylvania to New Hampshire. Recognized as one of Troy’s founding fathers, John helped his three (orphaned) siblings throughout their lives.
My grandfather Norman took over the family business in 1899 and raised a family of four, my father Norman, Jr., third in line. Norman died suddenly of a heart attack at age 56, leaving a well-to-do family near the poverty line. My family’s journey from Ireland to Canada and the US shows the challenges all immigrants face.
Immigrant Stories is a collection readers’ family history stories highlighting the struggles of their immigrant ancestors. Submit your own here.
Illustration: A ca. 1890 advertisement for Squires, Sherry & Galusha.
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