Irish Found in South Carolina–1850 Census

Mrs. Motes continues her effort to stratify by ethnic group the 1850 population of South Carolina as evidenced in the U.S. Census of that year. Her earlier volume, also available from Clearfield Company, identified the free African-American population of South Carolina in 1850. This work pertains to 4,000 South Carolina Irish, 2,400 of whom resided in the Charleston area. While South Carolina had witnessed previous waves of Irish immigration in the 1720s and 1760s, this latest influx was triggered by the tragic potato famine of the mid-1840s. Mrs. Motes has arranged the South Carolina Irish of 1850 in alphabetical order by surname. Each named individual is identified by age, sex, occupation, country of birth, county of residence, and household enumeration number assigned by the census taker. Mrs. Motes also indicates when an Irish immigrant resided (usually as a live-in servant) in a household not headed by his/her family member. Rounding out the volume are a table of South Carolina counties with the dates canvassed, a historical preface by the author, and indexes of names, occupations, and counties.