What's Included: Jam?son Famine Immmigrants

Our database includes anyone and everyone we can find with the name Jameson, or any of the known spelling variations, immigrating into the United States during the so called Famine years, 1847-1852, give or take a few years (actually we try and include all records for the years between 1840 and 1860). Most of these names are found in the records of the National Archives, other names from about anywhere we can find the information.

We have also then added subsequent descendants to these immigrants where and when we find them.

We make no claim as to absolute accuracy of this material, or for that matter completeness, especially completeness..

The purpose of this database is to provide a single place for all the known immigrants with the Jam?son surname, during the period of probably the greatest single influx of people with that surname in a relatively short period of time.

This is not intended to be a history of the great Irish famine years, only a collection, as complete as we can make it, of those that arrived in the United States during that time.

If you, or anyone you know is connected to any of the people in our database, we'd like to hear from you, so that we can add, correct or improve our collection of Jam?sons who may have immigrated during, or around, the great famine years.

One should work with caution when interrupting the information in our database. Much of what is here can be considered wrong, or at least misleading. Some of it by misunderstanding, some of it meant to mislead and some of it just plain incorrect. It is difficult to know if these passengers were always immigrants of if they were merely passenger, crew members, or what.

The most reliable information would be the ships arrival date and most likely the port, or place, of arrival. Both of which are pretty much self evident. But one needs to be somewhat sensitive to simple mistakes, magnified with subsequent transcriptions.

The least likely "fact" is most likely be what's listed as the immigrants "Native Country." Often listed is the UK, which can mean almost anywhere in the British Isles. Furthermore, an emigrant sailing from Liverpool may be listed by that person in charge of filling in the ships manifest as from the UK or from England (where the ship sails from) instead of the actual emigrants actual home. Furthermore many emigrants wished to hide, or simply didn't care if their listing on the ships manifest was correct. There was also likely quotas or other regulations to circumvent, perhaps mistaken or intentional reasons to hide ones identity.

The place of departure is probably correct, but can be very misleading. Often the route of emigration was a two step. As an example, An emigrant may have departed from Liverpool, England after having first come there from Belfast, Dublin, Glasgow or Londonderry. Or perhaps arrived in America from Halifax, Nova Scotia, yet first coming from Liverpool to Nova Scotia to begin with.

The name has problems too. Spelling errors, interpertation of names between the emigrant and the person writing things down could cause mistakes, especially with the issue of unfamiliar accents and dialects. The name Jameson can sometimes sound entirely different when heard from a Scotsman, an Irishman, or someone from England, even when it's spelled out. The name Jam?son has had a long history of spelling variations.

The age of each immigrant can also have problems. Many people, then and now, "adjust" their own age to fit the conditions, or perceived requirements.

Many of these Jam?son immigrants were likely married and traveling as husband and wife. Some undoubtedly were traveling as a family unit. Unfortunately none of the ships manifests, from which the information is taken, identify this possibility. It simply was not recorded as such. Furthermore, many of the transcriptions from which our database is created, did not record each person necessarily at the same time nor even with the same spelling, making family relationships difficult to see, as such. For the most part, what is in our database is raw data and we make no clam as to relationships between different people, although undoubtly this was quite likely.

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What's Actually in Our Database