February 22, 2010:

Grenville Foundry in Prescott in 1862


July 1, 2015:

The St. Mark's Story
"The St. Mark's Story" is a history of the Roman Catholic Church in Prescott, Ontario called St. Mark the Evangelist. 
It is written by Barbara A. Seargeant and edited by David Bernier. 
Irish, Scottish and Francophone Roman Catholic families first appeared in Prescott in 1816. This book contains a history of the 
building and expansion of the church over many generations. All of the major church officials are mentioned by name 
and, for genealogical purposes, some of the early family names such as Duffy, Tracy, McGannon, Boyd, McDonald, 
Mooney, Kavanagh, Culhane, Buckley and Nugent were parishioners in 1864. The cemetery was created in 1859.

This book is available at the library of the Ottawa Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society at 
100 Tallwood, corner of Woodroffe and Tallwood.
... Al


 February 24, 2017:

During the Great Famine (Black '47), Irish families were sent from Grosse Isle, Quebec to Montreal and then on to
local communities which were either on a canal system or where industrialization was taking place and jobs were opening up. In Prescott, Ontario
there was an already established Irish community to assist the new arrivals to integrate into life in Canada.

Some of the famine emigrants stayed here in Prescott and others moved, up the St. Lawrence River or north to Glengarry County or to the Ottawa Valley. 

Here are names of some folks who came from Montreal to Prescott between 1845 and 1847. Most of these folks came with their families:

The preferred route to Bytown was by way of the Ottawa River. However many of the emigrants were forced to retreat to Lachine Quebec, and then 
transfer to steamers headed to Prescott, Ontario via the St. Lawrence River. See ugly business quoted below:



Now, here is a minor setback. Some of the famine immigrants settled permanently in Prescott, Ontario. But, hundreds of them used Prescott as a transhipment 
depot to make their way to their final destination which was Ottawa. They travelled by land from Prescott up what is now Highway 31 (Bank Street) and 
along the Stage Coach Road, through Osgoode Township. Here is the first page of many which contain the names of persons with tickets 
to travel to Prescott but their ultimate destination was Ottawa. We will pick up these names when we get to Gloucester and Osgoode Townships where some 
of the famine emigrants settled and joined pre-famine Irish neighbourhoods. These earlier pre-famine arrivals had come to the Ottawa area twenty years earlier 
and had worked on the construction of the Rideau Canal between 1827 and 1832.



Here are names of some immigrants who specifically stated their destination as Prescott, Ontario. They likely had friends or relatives already there:

John Walsh, John Grebbon / Gribbon and family, Michael Monaghan & family, Mary Hamilton & son, James Londy / Lundy & 3 children are going to his son, 
James Kane / Keane, wife & 6 children, Catherine Henden (sp?), John Allen, Patrick Phelan / Whelan, John O'Bail / O'Boyle. 

Source: Names of Emigrants from the 1845-1847 records of James Allison, Emigrant Agent at Montreal, Irish Research Group of the 
Ottawa Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society, publication number 94-2, 1994, ISBN 1-55116-72-8. 
This publication (112 pages) is now available from Global Genealogy in either hardcopy format or as a download in .pdf format.

Note: This book covers only the years 1845-47 and therefore does not include the later famine immigrants -- for example, those who came
from the Fitzwilliam Estate in County Wicklow, as late as 1854.
... Al Lewis

Bytown or Bust is also on