^
Thanks for that. I eventually took two. I got the results back for one and am waiting for the results for others. It confirmed some things, but began raising a number of questions. I had done some fag packet math that had worked out the majority of my ancestry was Irish and when you add in the number of people who had red flags assigned to them, it probably added up right, even if the result seemed surprisingly large. What I found I think says a lot about the Irish experience in general, which I'll share to assist anyone who has Irish ancestry and struggles with the fact the records are scarce.
1) Unfortunately, the census records often do not say where an individual is from. But in the moments that it did, I often noticed quite a prevalent about of intermingling between people from different parts of Ireland. While I've seen examples of Irish enclaves being created in North America where entire villages may have picked up sticks and moved resulting in a very homogeneous pool limited to a few counties and areas, the Liverpool experience appears to have been very broad. I get the sense, the Irish stuck with other Irish.
Perhaps, the famine largely impacted that. If part of your family stayed at home, and others went to Australia or America or elsewhere, perhaps people were more willing to interact with people from the same country, who would have similar experiences. Yes, obviously racism and socio-economic barriers would have also influenced that, but I do feel that for many of these people there must have been a sense that being in the same situation, working alongside each other, might have been more important than if you were from a different county or region of Ireland. Although maybe my experience is unique.
2) I have long believed that there were probably many Irish people who claimed in census records they were from Liverpool, but were actually from Irish. I had more than half a dozen people in my tree marked as potential red flags. People often with Irish names that almost appeared to have come from another planet, due to the lack of records, or the large gaps therein. Thus, I think it is important to not necessarily assume someone is from where they claim to be. I also think that although we associate Irish emigration with the famine, there were other events (the 1798 rebellion) that may have encouraged people to leave prior to that. Also, I think it is often forgotten how incredibly close parts of Ireland are to Liverpool, Wales, Scotland and Cumbria.
3) Another aspect I have often wondered is when people gave a location in Ireland for where they were from, was that actually the case? Obviously, we don't know what the census taker said when asking that question, but I do wonder if many them either said the county from whence they left (this apparently is well-known among German immigrants to the United States, who would often list the port they left from as where they were from in Germany), or where they an area like Dublin or Wexford, for a short-time looking for work and other opportunities, before leaving.
