New York Emigration and Immigration: Difference between revisions

*Reeve, Vera. compiler. ''Register of Qualified Huguenot Ancestors: The National Huguenot Society''. Third Edition, Washington, DC: the Society, 1983. (Family History Library book {{FHL|55570|title-id|disp=973 D2rq}}.) Genealogies and sources. See also the 1995 supplement (Family History Library book {{FHL|771567|title-id|disp=973 D2rq 1992 suppl}}.)

German "Palatines" came in 1709/10 to the upper Hudson Valley, near present-day Germantown, Columbia County. Many had been lured to America after reading the "Golden Book," published by British authorities, to promote the colonization of America. It portrayed the New World as a paradise. Some lived in England for a few years. Reconstructed passenger lists are available online as part of ProGenealogists' [http://www.progenealogists.com/palproject/ny/index.html Palatine Project]. After arriving in New York and working in the tar and naval stores industries to pay off their passage, they found themselves landless, and in an undeveloped wilderness. The British failed to keep their promise to grant each immigrant 40 acres of land for emigrating. Many ventured to the unsettled Schoharie Valley backcountry and purchased land from Indians. They established seven villages. 1709ers include Valentin Bresseler (ancestor of Elvis Presley) and Jost Hite "Baron of the Shenandoah."<ref name="hank" /><ref>Henry Z. Jones, Ralph Connor, and Klaus Wust, ''German Origins of Jost Hite, Virginia Pioneer, 1685-1761'' (Edinburg, Va.: Shenandoah History, c1979). {{FHL|488732|item|disp=FHL Book 929.273 H637j}}.</ref>&nbsp; The "[http://www.nbc.com/who-do-you-think-you-are/bios-season-2/tim-mcgraw/ Tim McGraw]" episode of ''Who Do You Think You Are?'' (NBC) brings this immigration story to life. McGraw descends from Hite. DNA has been collected from descendants of many 1709ers, see [http://www.worldfamilies.net/surnames/palatine/pats The Palatine DNA Project].  

Before 1776 Germans and Dutch settled the Mohawk Valley.  

In the early 1770s Scottish and Irish immigrants settled in the upper Hudson and Delaware valleys. Ulster Scots, or Scotch-Irish, settled near the Hudson River in Orange and Ulster counties in the late 1600s. Millions (approximately 3 million) Irish (mostly Catholic) immigrated to the United States. Hundreds of thousands&nbsp;settled&nbsp;in New York City in especially the mid to late 19th Century. Some stayed for a few years and then migrated into the rest of the United States. Their migration fanned out into the midwest, i.e. Chicago St. Louis, south (Alabama and Georgia) and out west. Visit the [http://aad.archives.gov/aad/fielded-search.jsp?dt=180&cat=GP44&tf=F&bc=sl Famine Emigrants 1846-1851 database at the NARA] website for an online search of nearly 700,000 Irish Famine Immigrants, representing one of the most significant&nbsp;immigration epics of all time in America's history. In 1855, one in every four, or 54 percent of New York City's foreign-born population were Irish with over 200,000 registered as "born in Ireland". The largest New York immigrant passenger-list index, available for the first time for the years 1820 to 1957, is now online at [http://search.ancestry.com/search/DB.aspx?dbid=7488 Ancestry.com] with 68 million names. Here is&nbsp;an enlarged [[List of Irish Emigration]] websites for locating Irish ancestors on ships.