Grosse-Ile

 I think that the story of my Irish ancestors in America begins at Grosse-Ile, an island in the St. Lawrence River north of Quebec.  Great-grandpa William Coates was a child when he immigrated to the US in 1851.  I recall from family oral history that his family came first to Canada - which means they would have spent time at Grosse-Ile before being allowed to proceed to Quebec and Montreal.  Of course, I could be flat wrong too.  The problem is the absence of clear data - early US census documents only list the name of the head of the household so it's hard to figure out whether you have the correct branch of the family tree.  And Canada's archive of ship manifests that list names of passengers is very spotty.  In any event, today we took a ferry to Grosse-Ile, the Canadian version of Ellis Island.

The island itself is a pretty rugged place.  Very little is left of the buildings that would have been there in the 1851 time frame, but there is a lazarette where immigrants were housed and quarantined prior to admission.  Very crowded facilities during that time and much death from disease because they didn't know what caused it -- it was the miasma that escapes from sick and dead bodies.  The cemetery, that is the final resting place for more than 6000 Irish souls who perished while trying to escape starvation, was a sobering place.  The dead were buried in wooden coffins but en masse.  You can see where the earth has settled when the coffins disintegrated.  Originally unmarked graves, there are now symbolic wooden crosses in the field and a monument to the doctors who died themselves while treating the sick.  The names of all Irish who died on Grosse-Ile are etched on glass monument.

A Celtic cross was erected on Grosse-Ile in1909.  There are plaques on all four sides, one listing the doctors who died or caught typhus while treating the sick, one in French honoring the good folk who cared for the Irish immigrants, one in English saying the same, and one in Gaelic.  The author of the Gaelic version didn't follow the plan and instead the inscription refers to the artificial famine caused by the English. 

So tonight we are in the KOA Quebec, close to the old city and Route 20 (yea, noisy).  We are surrounded by $200,000 travel homes.  Intimidating.  But our Starcraft has everything we need to be happy.  Maybe sometime soon will attempt to use the awning!  Bon soir!