Thomas & Bridget arrived in Canada in 1830. Thomas arrived in Canada in May 1830 and Bridget followed arriving in June 1830. It was very common for the husband or head of the family to arrive ahead and get accommodations and work. Although it appears they came to Canada separately I don’t believe they travelled alone. Records in Canada mention several people involved in baptisms and cemetery records with the names McCormick & O’Connor as well as names of people who were neighbours of the McCormick’s in Ireland, indicating other members of both families made the journey to Canada and travelled with Thomas & Bridget.

Canada was still a vast untamed and wild wilderness for the most part and only consisted of the Quebec, Ontario and the Maritimes. Quebec (Lower Canada) and Ontario (Upper Canada) were much smaller than they are today (see map below). Most of Canada was known as Rupert’s Land and was owned by the Hudson Bay Company. The Hudson’s Bay Company still exists today known simply as “The Bay” which are departments stores and was established on May 2nd, 1670. At this point in time we do not know the ships Thomas & Bridget sailed on for their journey to Canada from Ireland and we may never know. These documents may no longer exist as documents were not kept on a regular basis until 1867 when Canada became a country. However I have been very fortunate to find the ships/ferries they took up the St. Lawrence river once they arrived in Canada. I have established that when Thomas and Bridget arrived in Canada from Ireland they landed at the port of Quebec, from there they would take several ferry’s up the St. Lawrence river from Quebec city to Montreal and from Montreal to Brockville or Prescott Ontario where they would continue their journey on foot or by wagon. Thomas sailed on the ship Chambly from Quebec to Montreal on May 26th, 1830. Bridget sailed on the Waterloo from Quebec to Montreal on July 14th, 1830.

I found the baptismal record for Thomas and Bridget’s first child Mary which states she was born in Ramsay on February 6th, 1831. Ramsay is Ramsay Township, Lanark County, Ontario. Ramsay has since been consolidated with several other townships and no longer exists, however this tells us they were living near Perth, Ontario when they first arrived from Ireland in 1830. Ramsay township had been surveyed by the British several years previously and was settled by many Irish although the land there was rocky and thickly forested and not very good for farming so many immigrants moved on to other areas as did the McCormick’s. They eventually settled in Vinton, Quebec where they farmed for generations. Vinton, originally called Franktown is located on the east side of the Ottawa river about 100km north of Ottawa. Vinton was mostly settled by Irish immigrants. The McCormick homestead was located directly on the east side of Ottawa river with a large river frontage. The farm consisted of 400 acres. I visited the farm twice, once in 1998 and again in 2023. The remains of the original log cabin are gone now and it is just empty land now used as pasture. When I visited in 1998 remains of the original log cabin built by Thomas and Bridget were still partially visible. I took pictures which are available further down the page.

In the 1820s Canada was divided into Upper Canada also called Canada West (Ontario) and Lower Canada also known as Canada East (Quebec & the Maritimes) and were territories of Great Britain so no documentation was required to enter or leave Canada from England, Ireland, or Scotland which has made researching Thomas & Bridget’s journey more challenging.

The journey from Ireland was so incredibly difficult and treacherous that thousands died attempting it and was difficult beyond anything we can imagine today. The trip would consisted of 8 weeks or more in the hold of a ship across the North Atlantic Ocean. This journey became even more treacherous and deadly in the decades that followed Thomas and Bridget’s arrival. Disease was rampant with cholera, typhus and dysentery being the most common. Two years after Thomas and Bridget arrived in Canada, disease was threatening to spread in epidemic proportions and the government opened Grosse Ile. Grosse Ile is an island in the St. Lawrence river where a quarantine station and hospital opened in 1832 where all immigrants were required to quarantine if they were sick. Grosse Ile closed in 1937. The length of quarantine depended on the disease. Between 1832 and 1837, 7480 individuals were buried on the island. Of those 7480 deaths, 5000 died in the island’s hospital, the other 2480 died on board the ships during the crossing and many more were buried at sea. This does not account for the ones who perished when the ships sank of which there were many. By the 1840’s with the situation becoming horrific in Ireland and desperate, people were leaving Ireland in the 10’s of thousands. The ships carrying immigrants to North America became known as the coffin ships. 

Thomas and Bridget eventually made their way from Ramsey township, Upper Canada to Perth, Ontario area to Vinton (Franktown), Pontiac County, Quebec, sometime in the 1840’s. Their youngest child Stephen was baptized at St. Anne’s Catholic Church on Grand Calumet Island in 1849 near Vinton where they farmed. In 1834 Thomas and Bridget were in Ottawa or within the Ottawa district. I discovered the baptismal records for their 2nd and 3rd children Margaret b.1834 and John b.1837 at Notre Dame Cathedral in Ottawa, Ontario. Margaret was born in 1834 but was not baptized until 1836. These records would have originally from St. Jacques parish church which stood on the site of the current Notre Dame Cathedral in Ottawa. St. Jacques was absorbed by Notre Dame which replaced it. By 1839 they were in or near Pontiac County, Quebec, the baptismal record for their son Thomas II b.1839 (my GG Grandfather) was found in the Mission of Buckingham in Quebec. Thomas and Bridget’s children Michael b.1842 and Bridget b.1845 baptismal records have not been found at this point, but it is possible they are also in the records of Notre Dame Cathedral in Ottawa. The list of records is enormous and will take time to search. Through my recent research I come to suspect there was another child of Thomas and Bridget named William. I suspect William died as an infant, this would explain the 3 year gap between Mary and Margaret and recent research has indicated this may be case, but at this stage it is still a theory.

It is important to note that in Ireland in the 1800s people could get married at as young as 13 years of age. This law was in effect until 1972 before it was changed. This is important in establishing approximate date of marriage and births. Although this seems extremely young by today’s standards it was not uncommon back then. An example of this is Thomas and Bridget’s daughter Mary who was born in Upper Canada. Mary was born February 6, 1831; she married Paul McNally April 22, 1847 meaning she had just turned 17 years of age a few weeks before she married.