We are delighted this week to promote an important database of Kerry emigrants to New 
Zealand between 1860 and 1875. I have always been intrigued by the number of Kerry people who emigrated there in the first half of the twentieth century, a great number of them from the Ballymacelligott area. Why New Zealand? Who could they possibly have known there? How could they get work there? Well here is the answer. A comprehensive list of families, their ages (approx as always) and occupations, dates of departure should provide some help in knocking back the ‘brick wall’ that we all come across.
We must thank Sean Brosnan for this significant record of 19th-century immigrants from County Kerry who took advantage of assisted passages provided by the Canterbury Province in the first instance, and then subsequently by the colonial government.
In his blog, Sean tells us
‘ The passenger lists generally contain names, ages, occupations, county of origin, the part of the ship the immigrant was housed (family quarters, or single men’s and single women’s quarters respectively). In some cases there are additional notations for “nominated” passengers on who already in Canterbury had put their name forward for assisted passage. I also indicate in my “Group” column where passengers were grouped together, usually with other family members but also groups of friends. These bits of information can be useful in making connections between people that have long been forgotten by their descendants. It also happens reconstitute family groups when the teenage members were moved from the daily quarters to the single men or single women’s areas as was standard practice on immigrant ships. I hope the details are accurate but no guarantees. Incorrect data, such as the spelling of names, is as per the lists. Thus my great-great grandparents and their family are listed as “Brosman” rather than Brosnahan’.
Canterbury Assisted Immigrants from Kerry alphabetically
Canterbury Assisted Immigrants from Kerry by arrival date
The PDFs will appear on screen with quite fine print but should still be legible if you blow them up a bit. Almost all of the ships docked in Lyttelton but the Echunga also called at Timaru.
Thank you Kay. Some of my Brown(e)’s and Collins’ immigrated from the Brosna/Knocknagoschel area between 1876 and 1879 so these records don’t have my immigrants to New Zealand. Most of them went to the Rakaia, Ashburton area of New Zealand.
I’ve found the FamilySearch web site helpful, thereby finding my Brown immigrants to New Zealand on 7 Dec 1878. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-DBGS-GGG?i=5&cc=1609792
All the best and Happy New Year.
Jim Brown
James, thank you for this – it could be of great help to others trying to access records. Kay
Wonderful post but too bad townland/towns of origin not presented. Alas…a chronic problem in many facets of the movement of Irish immigrants.
GB
Excellent research and presentation. Thank you Kay.
Hello. My Brosnan/Brosnahan grandmother Mary born 1865, Lacca East/Pilgrim Hill, Islandanny married John Kearney from Belaghy Co Derry at Waipawa NZ in 1889. Out of the time frame and locality of this study, but perhaps of interest.
Your blog is featured on TIARA’s (The Irish Ancestral Research Association) Best of the Blogs for the week ending January 9
Kathleen, thank you very much. I am honoured, and appreciate.
Thank you, Kay, for sharing this! Fascinating and so detailed. My great-great-grandparents sailed to NZ in 1864 (arriving 1865) as assisted immigrants (John and Bridget O’Hagan, with their sons Isaac and Edward), and I’ve been researching that voyage (but they didn’t sail from Kerry). Why NZ? Well, the Waikato immigration scheme, run by the Auckland Provincial Council, encouraged the immigration of European immigrants in the North Island and gave them land upon arrival… :)
Denise, thank you for this. It is always so good to get ‘the reason why’. It makes absolute sense then why young people, even young families got up and left and set off for the other side of the world – if they were going to get an opportunity to get land they would land and thus an opportunity to better themselves and a future for their children.
Thank you, Kay. Considered in the context of the wake of the Famine, even arduous and risky voyages (especially in steerage) absolutely made sense!
Most of the nine children of Daniel Hurley and Margaret Lenihan (who were born early 1800s and died at Lissivane, Milltown District, County Kerry in late 1870s) emigrated to New Zealand. They established the township of Hurleyville in Patea, Taranaki (North Island). Travel between NZ and Australia was relatively easy (crossing the Tasman Sea is called “jumping the ditch”) and some of the Hurleys lived in both countries at different times. Thomas Hurley (my ancestor) settled down permanently to farm in Victoria; Patrick went to Western Australia and ran a hotel in Busselton. John/Jack married in Australia but died in New Zealand. Johanna remained in Ireland and married but one of her married daughters emigrated to New Zealand in 1921 and settled in Hastings, Hawke’s Bay. I’m still gathering information about it all yet but it looks like a good example of chain migration.
Margaret, I would love to publish a summary of your history of the Hurley family on my blog with yourself as the source. When do you think you might have an outline of it completed? Kay
I am interested to see a McQuinn family on the list of emigrants. I would be interested to hear from any of their descendants, especially if they have any information about where in Kerry the family had lived, and whether anything is known about relatives left behind. I have a Patrick McQuinn ancestor, known as Quinn in Canada where he settled in the 1790s. I think his father may have been a Thomas McQuinn.
George, I am afraid that you would need a bit more information than this in order to identify the correct McQuinn family!
I am looking for Mortimer Sullivan born 1850 from Castletownbere area. He was said traveling on Fern Glen boat to New Zealand.
His father Mark mother Anna
Has anyone heard of this vessel?
Carole