Genealogical Discoveries: Immigrants and Quarantine in New York City and Boston

Darien Library and Middlesex Genealogical Society welcome Loretto Leary, Educational and Cultural Director of Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum. In the wake of the Great Irish Famine, thousands of men, women, and children crossed the Atlantic in search of survival and opportunity. For many, the Port of New York represented the promise of a new beginning. Yet for countless others, it marked the tragic end of their journey.

What You Will Learn

• At the Staten Island Marine Hospital and Quarantine Station—now the site of the Staten Island Ferry Terminal—thousands of famine immigrants perished shortly after arrival. 
• Their suffering and resilience are commemorated in two nearby burial grounds that remain vital to understanding this chapter of Irish and American history.

Schedule

An informal social hour will begin at 1 p.m.  
Loretto Leary's lecture will begin at 2 p.m.

About the Presenter

Loretto Horrigan Leary, originally from Portumna, County Galway, has made her home in Connecticut for over three decades. A seasoned educator, she has taught Language Arts at the elementary and middle school levels in Darien, New Canaan, Norwalk, and Stamford. As a freelance journalist, her writing has appeared in publications such as The Irish Echo, Irish Central, Irish Examiner USA, and Australia’s Irish Scene. Currently, Loretto serves as Educational and Cultural Director of Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum of Fairfield and is also Co-Chair of the Connecticut–Ireland Trade Commission. Loretto is pursuing her PhD at Trinity College Dublin, where her research focuses on Irish American Famine memory and the memorial landscapes of New York, with particular attention to Staten Island’s role in this transatlantic story of loss, survival, and remembrance.