The Irish Family History Forum’s Saturday morning meeting for this month, held tomorrow, will focus on the topic “Emigrant Savings Bank Records: A Valuable Genealogical Tool.” The meeting will take place at the Freeport Memorial Library, 144 West Merrick Road, Freeport, N.Y. 11520, beginning at 10 a.m. Dues-paying members of the IFHF have the option to attend via Zoom.
In 1850, the Irish Emigrant Society founded the Emigrant Savings Bank as an outgrowth of its concern for the welfare of the Irish immigrants who had arrived after the Famine years of the latter 1840s. Today, the Bank’s surviving records can be a valuable source of information for genealogists and family historians. Bank deposit account books often included detailed personal information about individual depositors and their Irish roots. Guest speaker Katherine Willson discusses the records and demonstrates how to access them online and off.
Willson is past president of the Michigan Genealogical Council and past board member of the Association of Professional Genealogists. In addition to working for private clients, she more recently has been an instructor at the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh and the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy.
The IFHF can be reached at P.O. Box 67, Plainview, New York 11803-0067, or at info@ifhf.org. Its website is ifhf.org.
