Patients in Toronto Insane Asylum 1841

Was your ancestor one of these troubled individuals below?

Following are the names of patients in the Toronto Insane Asylum in 1841 taken from the image above: James Watson, Keeran Flyn, John Gibson, Hugh Husson, James Beaty, Daniel Izord, Daniel McNab, John Stewart, Francis Lindsay, Elijah Chappell, John Lambert, Ellen Dunn ,Letitia Stevtns ,Eliza Murphy, Mary Kelly, Elizabeth McLean, Mary Campbell, Mary Thompson, Jacob Barnhart, Nancy Henly, Mary Erskine ,George Daniels, Edward Bevans, William Ridley, Anne Wallis, Mary Thompson, Martha Spotswood, John Beare, Nancy Hcnly George Winters, Samuel Morrell, Mary Thompson

For more information on existing medical records for Ontario see http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/can/ont/medical.shtml 

Refugees of Irish Famine to Get a Proper Burial

When the Irish Famine hit in the late 1840s, thousands upon thousands of starving immigrants made their way to N. America in what became known as Coffin Ships. Many died during the sea voyage and many more died once they reached the port of arrival. 

My Irish McGinnis ancestors arrived in Upper Canada (present day Ontario) in 1847 with a one year old child. I cannot begin to imagine what they endured to come to this new land. 

In New York so many Irish immigrants died while in quarantine that the city ran out of spaces to bury the bodies. Because of the lack of space, thousands of bodies were stacked anonymously, three and four deep, in trenches dug behind the hospital.

Now, more than 150 years later, the remains of 83 men, women and children, recovered from the quarantine’s hastily dug ditches, will be re-interred and given a proper burial.

Read the rest of the story at Refugees of Irish Famine to Get a Proper Burial