Canadian historic newspapers, Montreal findings for Clare-born

[smcarberry]

I realize this subject is not on most Clare family historians' radar, but I keep an eye out for sources that cover the 1800s era of Montreal, Province of Quebec, Canada. During the time-out recently of this Forum, I dug deeper into a source used in 2020 for death notices of Clare-born in that city, bur this time I searched for ads seeking relatives placed by or for Clare people in Montreal. Such searches require extensive search time because the Montreal news editors didn't follow the practice of "Missing Friends" ads placed in U.S. newspapers (nicely clustered together in a standard location in each news edition and usually sorted on that page by Irish county). Nonetheless Montreal ads were typically headed by the standard phrase "Information Wanted." The Montreal paper apparently ran an ad monthly for more than the 3 times that U.S. newspapers ran similar ads, so in Canada each ad had a much longer exposure.

I found a mere handful in the years 1851 through 1875, although there might be more. I screenshot only one such ad of the entire series run for a particular person. The unviewed additional editions of the same ad possibly could also show ads for other people sought by other seekers.

I show below an extract of the Montreal results from the Canadiana website, which are easily segregated from results for the other provinces by selecting "French" rather than "English" on that site's filters. The newspaper results returned were shown in their original English language, the newspaper being written for English speakers in a city originally settled by French immigrants. "French" thus is a handy filter -- there are hundreds of search results for the Clare-born elsewhere in Canada when hitting the other filter "English."

I recommend not using the "Newspapers" filter, as there are some Clare-born whose biographies appear in other publications.

I show below links to suitable historic collections across Canada. The "run" of included newspapers and the included years of a specific newspaper can be less comprehensive that we might wish for this digital era. It's good to have a place (this Forum) to publicize these sources.

Sharon C.

Covering all provinces:
http://communitydigitalarchives.com/search.html

ONT newspaper archive, with search engine
https://search.ourontario.ca/

https://www.canadiana.ca/collection-serials
source for ads placed in Montreal newspaper The True Witness and Catholic Chronicle, using standard search heading “Information Wanted”:

1851 for Thomas Shannon 18, by mother Bridget nee Burke, St. Albans VT

1852 for Mary Frawly 16/17 of “Killydysert”, by father in Ireland via John O’Dea in Renfrew CAN

1854 for John & brother Michael Clarey of “Colemain” Clare, by John’s wife staying Chicago IL

1856 for James Culligan of “Money Point” Clare, by sister Ellen now in Montreal

1856 near standard ads but worded “Where is Martin Gorman ?” about 14, of Carrigaholt, by sister Mary Gorman with reply to M. Teefy at “Richmond Hill Post Office” Canada West

1858 for Patk, Thos & Margt Kinnan of “Killidesey” Parish, now in NY, by sister Mary Kinnan

1875 for James Conolon & sister Mrs. Francis Davis of “Killishanny” Parish, by their brother Michael at his address: St. Patrick’s Church, Montreal

Note:
1829 ad, newspaper title not saved, heading “Information Wanted” for Hannah Grady of Kildysart Parish, by husband Michael Power who landed Quebec ahead of her 1826, now in Montreal

Also, not to slight the many hundreds of death entries of Clare-born in Canadian historic newspapers, here is an example from the Hamilton Times, which has a very good run of included editions in the mid to late 1800s. Hamilton is a port city in the greater Toronto region.
"DEATHS
TAULTY - In this city, on January 16th, 1902, Michael Taulty, a native of County Clare, Ireland, aged 80 years. Funeral from his late residence, 166 Ferrie street east, on Monday morning at 8:30 to St. Lawrence Church, thence to Holy Sepulchre Cemetery. Friends and acquaintances please accept this intimation [sic]."