The Irish in Upper Canada, 1819-1840

A tip of the hat to blog reader Patrick Doyle for bringing to my attention a recent University of Toronto PhD thesis, "Unsettled Settlers: Irish Catholics, Irish Catholicism, and British loyalty in Upper Canada, 1819-1840" by Laura Smith. It examines the role of Roman Catholicism in the process by which Irish Catholics integrated into Upper Canadian society in the first half of the nineteenth century.

Patrick writes that the manuscript has enabled him to gain a much better appreciation of the socio-religious context of his 19th century Irish Catholic ancestors' early lives in the Ottawa Valley.

Theses are an often overlooked resource for the family historian and the literature search required for such academic studies can also bring to light obscure sources.

The text is quite long - nearly 400 pages - so to read it be prepared to set aside a good chunk of time.

However, lacking the time you can still browse the references, and having it online means you can search words or phrases, names and places of personal interest.