The young women who came to the Australian colonies during the Famine years of 1848 to 1850 were from workhouses in all 32 counties throughout Ireland. All were destitute and many had lost their parents and families, so were ‘orphans’ in the modern sense of the word. Others were simply unable to support themselves within the family. The term ‘orphan’, meaning loss of at least one parent, did apply to the vast majority of the 4114 who took up the offer under Earl Grey’s Famine Orphan Scheme.
View Orphan Database To search our database of Irish Orphans click here
Ships To search the ships that carried Irish Orphans to Australia between 1848 and 1850 click here
The Great Irish Famine Commemoration Committee is gathering stories about all the women, following on from the work of Dr Trevor McClaughlin. A few stories are attached as pdfs to the individual girls and are mainly compiled by descendants - some have not been authenticated by The Great Irish Famine Commemoration Committee but have been compiled from research conducted by descendants.
NOTE THAT NOT ALL 4114 WOMEN FROM THE 20 SHIPS ARE IN THE DATABASE as the three (3) ships to South Australian are incomplete due to poor or non-existent shipping lists.
