Bones of Children Fleeing Ireland on The Carricks in 1847 Found

Anthropologists working for Parks Canada have been studying 3 partial skeletons  discovered on Quebec’s Gaspé peninsula three years ago.  After there years of study, scientists now believe that the bones are that of 3 young children from Ireland who died in the 1847 shipwreck of The Carricks.

http://gaspesie.quebecheritageweb.com/fr/node/439502

The Carricks carried  Irish immigrants fleeing the potato famine who were sailing to Quebec City in hopes of a new and better life in Canada. After the storm and shipwreck, over 100 bodies washed ashore and the few survivors (estimated to be 48 in number) were taken in by local residents. An Irish newspaper reports that 176 immigrants boarded the Carrick in Sligo Ireland.

There was no passenger list so the names of those who perished was never known. The 3 children whose skeletons were found had clues indicating their ages - two  between 7 and 9 years old, the other 11 or 12 years. A curve in one bone pointed to malnutrition consistent with rickets, a condition caused by vitamin D deficiency.

Their names will almost certainly never be known but they will be given a proper burial. Read more at Human Bones Discovered on Gaspé peninsula ‘witnesses to a tragic event’