"The world is a book...

...and those who don't travel read only a page."
~ Saint Augustine

I've been busy on a wonderful family trip to a place with lots of rich heritage and beautiful weather. I'm looking forward to getting back to blogging now that I'm back from traveling.

Check back soon for some new posts!

Tierney family treasure: Patrick's naturalization papers, 1876

It was one-hundred years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  It was the year that the Sioux and Cheyenne defeated Custer and his troops at Little Big Horn.  It was the year that baseball's National League was founded, and that prominent Boston resident Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone.

The year 1876 was also of personal importance for another Boston resident, my great-great-grandfather Patrick Tierney. On September 14, 1876 Patrick Tierney (and his wife Catherine by virtue of their marriage two years previous) became citizens of the United States.

Patrick's Declaration of Intent to become a citizen and Petition for Citizenship, which I obtained from the National Archives,  are both very special family treasures for several reasons.  One of those reasons is the mention of Patrick's birth in County Tipperary, Ireland.  I find it very interesting to compare Patrick's naturalization papers with those belonging to my grandfather (on another branch of my family tree) who attained his citizenship in the early 20th-century.

Probably my favorite part of Patrick's documents is his signature. We have no photographic image of my great-great-grandfather, and no written description of what he looked like. His signature is the closest that we can get to an "image" of him. Here it is as it appears on his citizenship papers:

Patrick Tierney's Declaration of Intent and Petition for Citizenship are shown below followed by their transcriptions.

The document reads:

U.S. District Court
Boston, Mass. Vol 95 Page 5 5

United States of America
55

To the Honorable Judges of the Circuit Court of the United States, begun and holden at Boston, within and for the District of Massachusetts.

Respectfully represents Patrick Tierney of Boston in said District Laborer an Alien and a free white person; that he was born in County Tipperary, Ireland the 14th day of March in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and forty-one and is now about thirty-five years of age; that he arrived at Buffalo, NY in the District of New York in the United States of America, on or about the tenth day of April in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and fifty-eight being then a minor under the age of eighteen years; that it then was, and still is, his bona fide intention to reside in and become a citizen of the United States of America, and to renounce all allegiance and fidelity to every foreign Prince, State, Potentate and Sovereignty whatsoever – more especially to Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,

whose subject he has heretofore been. [Struck out: All of which appears in the record of the Honorable…Court,…to wit, on the…day of…A.D. 18…]

And the said petitioner further represents that he has ever since continued to reside within the jurisdiction of said United States; that he has never borne any hereditary title, or been any of the orders of nobility; that he is ready to renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to every foreign Prince, Potentate, State or Sovereignty whatsoever; and particularly to Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom and Great Britain and Ireland,

whose subject he has heretofore been; that he is attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States of America, and well disposed towards the good order and happiness of the same.
[Struck out: And the said petitioner further represents that he enlisted in the Armies of the United States, and was honorably discharged therefrom.]

Wherefore, your petitioner prays that he may be admitted to become a citizen of the said United States of America, according to the forms of the Statutes in such case made and provided.

x Patrick . Tierney
[Signature of Patrick Tierney]

187 Sworn to by said Petitioner,
Before me,
John G. Stetson,
Clerk.

Key to Transcription

Black = pre-printed on form
Blue = handwritten
Green = stamped on record
Red = not in record; my notes

~

Below is Patrick's Petition for Citizenship.



The document reads:

U.S. District Court
Boston, Mass. Vol 95 Page 5 5 A

United States of America

Massachusetts District, to wit: City of Boston, Sept. 14th 1876.
We Austin Quigley and John Mitchell All of Boston
and both citizens of said United States, severally depose and say, that we have known the foregoing petitioner for five years last past, during which time he has resided in said
Boston
and that he has resided within the State of Massachusetts one year at least; and has conducted himself and behaved as a man of good moral character, attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States, and well disposed towards the good order and happiness of the same.

Sept 14, 1876 Sworn to by Austin Quigley
the above named witnesses, John Mitchell
Before me,
John G. Stetson
Clerk.

Oath Taken by Petitioner

I, Patrick Tierney do solemnly swear, that I do absolutely and entirely renounce and adjure all allegiance and fidelity to every Foreign Prince, Potenate, State or Sovereignty whatsoever, - particularly to Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,

whose subject I have heretofore been; and that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America, - so help me God.

United States of America

District of Massachusetts, to wit:
At a Circuit Court of the United States, begun and holden at said Boston, on the fifteenth day of May in the year of our Lord 1876, to wit, on the 14th day of September A.D. 1876, the said Patrick Tierney took the aforesaid oath and was admitted to become a citizen of the United States of America; and the Court ordered that record thereof by made accordingly.

Attest:
John G. Stetson Clerk.

Key to Transcription

Black = pre-printed on form
Blue = handwritten
Green = stamped on record
Red = not in record; my notes

The Irish influence in Boston

This online video description of the Irish influence in Boston is interesting. Specifically of interest is the footage of the Famine Memorial in Boston (above), unveiled in 1998.

Boston and its North End in 1880

Just for reference, here's a map of Boston circa 1880. At the time this map was published, Patrick and his wife Catherine were expecting their third child and were living on Hanover Street, one of the main arteries of the North End. He was a peddler.

A happy day in 1874: The wedding of Patrick & Catherine (Kennedy) Tierney

On August 16, 1874 Patrick Tierney and Catherine Kennedy, both of Boston, were married. To the left is a transcription of their marriage record from the Massachusetts archives. At the time of their marriage, it had been twenty-nine years since the first year of famine and sixteen years since Patrick had arrived in the United States. It must have been a very happy day for Patrick and Catherine.

The couple's marriage took place at St. Stephen Catholic Church on Hanover Street.. Plans for the church had started in 1802 and the famous Boston born architect Charles Bullfinch (the nation's premier architect) had designed the building. (The church is the only Bullfinch church to survive the Boston fire of 1872.) The church is now part of the famous Freedom Trail in Boston.

The building had originally housed the New North Congregational Church. The Unitarian congregration gave way to the Irish Catholic population during the Civil War and in 1862 the Catholic Church bought the church building for $35,000 and dedicated it to St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr.

According to the couple's marriage record, Patrick's parents' names were Michael & Mary (O'Neil) Tierney (Mary's maiden name is listed on Patrick's death record).  Catherine's parents' names were Ralph & Bridget Kennedy. I have not yet been able to find any further information about either of these couples (Patrick & Catherine's parents), even whether or not they emigrated from Ireland along with their children. Were they able to watch as their children marry that day in 1874, or did they remain behind in Ireland when their children left for America in search of a better life?

On Independence Day

The sons of Patrick Tierney worked for the Fore River Shipyards in Quincy, Massachusetts for many years. (More on that later.)

The 4th of July is a good day to read this entry in the Fore River Log, a publication put out by the shipyard for its workers. It might have been read by John, Joseph and Leo Tierney, all sons of Patrick Tierney, who worked for the shipyard in the year 1918.

Your country is all that surrounds you, all that has reared and nourished you, everything that you have loved. That land you see, those houses, those trees, those smiling girls that pass, that is your country. The laws that protect you, the bread which rewards your toil, the words you exchange, the joy and the sadness which come to you from men and the things amid which you live, that is your country! The little chamber where you once saw your mother, the recollections she has left you, the earth where she reposes, that is your country. You see it, and you breathe it everywhere! I imagine, my son, your rights and your duties, your affections and your needs, your recollections and your gratitude, all united under one name, and that name will be "MY COUNTRY!"

~ Emil Souvestre, French author, soldier and patriot, as published in Fore River Log, 1918

A new life in Boston

In the early 1800s, the Irish began to migrate to the North End of Boston in huge numbers. They dominated the neighborhood until approximately 1900.

Our very own Patrick Tierney (1841-1900) emigrated from County Tipperary to Buffalo, New York. He arrived there on April 10, 1858. (This information is recorded on his application to become a naturalized citizen of the United States.)

Patrick was a young 17 years of age when he arrived in Buffalo. He must have arrived soon thereafter in Boston, but I have not yet found records to specify the date.

It is understandable that Patrick and other Irish immigrants would have chosen Boston as their final destination.

According to this website which explains much of the history of Boston's North End neighborhood:

...over the 40-year period, from 1815 to 1855, over 1 million Irish emigrated to America. Boston was a major destination, the North End neighborhood its poor haven. In an almost arithmetic progression: 2000 Irish were living in Boston in 1820, 5000 in 1825, 7000 in 1830, and between 1846 and 1855, 37,000 more Irish had fled Ireland for Boston. In 1847 alone 13,235 Irish emigrated to Boston. This was the year known as "Black 47" and was the most deadly year of Ireland's Great Potato Famine or, as it was called in Gaelic, An Górta Mor or The Great Hunger.

Arriving in Boston, many Irish immigrants initially settled in the North End and along its waterfront - impoverished and in despair. Disease became so endemic to the overcrowded neighborhood that by 1845 the neighborhood suffered a communicable disease rate twice that of the rest of Boston. "Children in the Irish district [North End]," wrote Bostonian Lemuel Shattuck, "seemed literally born to die." By 1850, the Irish comprised over half of the North End population of 23,000 and five years later 14,000 of the 26,000 North Enders were Irish born. Families were packed together in one-room decrepit apartments and run-down boarding houses - all in a neighborhood comprising less than 70 acres traditionally used for housing (the remaining 30 acres comprised waterfront warehouses and wharves). Moreover, as Thomas H. O'Connor has written: "Native Bostonians might have been willing to send money and food to aid the starving Irish as long as they remained in Ireland, but they certainly didn't want them coming to America." Thus began the long saga of incessant suffering and discrimination.

This is a photo of Boston's North End today:


This was the world that Patrick Tierney entered into when he left the suffering of Ireland. And there's more...

Unlike the subsequent waves of immigrants that followed over the next half-century - the Portuguese, European Jews and the Italians - the Irish had neither the resources nor the competitive skills to adjust easily. Employment opportunities were limited and anti-Irish job discrimination was rampant: "No Irish Need Apply" signs seemed to be everywhere. The Irish were forced to take only the lowliest, most menial jobs - as domestics, laborers and unskilled factory workers. And most of these jobs were outside the North End. Much of the work force employed for Boston's land reclamation projects, such as the filling in of the City's Back Bay, were Irish laborers from the North End. They also helped build Boston's transit system and the bridges and highways to the suburbs.

Patrick Tierney, my great-great-grandfather, was one of those hard-working Irishmen. This is what his resume might have looked like:

Patrick Tierney
1874-1876 Laborer
1877-1881 Peddler (of tea and other items)
1884 Trader
1888-1891 Grocer
1897-1898 Laborer

We know the jobs that Patrick held because of various records that have listed his occupation: he and his wife's marriage license, his naturalization application, his children's birth records and several Boston city directories.

His must not have been an easy life, but his decision to immigrate to America allowed him the opportunity to find work, and to feed himself and his wife and family in a way that might not have been possible had he remained in Ireland.

Thanks for all your hard work, great-great-grandfather. You must not have felt much pride in yourself being a poor Irish laborer in Boston in the 19th century. But I'm proud to be your great-great-grandaughter and inspired by the story of your life.