Bertrand/Kelly Family - Kelly

We’ll start off with the Kellys as they emigrated from Ireland to Canada starting in the early 1800’s. 

Between 1815 and 1850, the greatest immigration to Canada was from Scotland and Ireland.  It is during this period that James Kelly and wife Sarah Gormley arrived and settled in the Québec City area.  They moved to Charlesbourg and then further on to Ste. Brigitte de Laval.  Around the same period, John Murray arrived from Ireland and settled in Ste. Brigitte de Laval, marrying his first wife, Mary McGee around 1831-1832.  Mary died in 1834, probably due to birth complications when she had her daughter Catherine.  In 1857, Catherine married Edward D. Kelly (who was a twin brother of John Kelly). 

In 1876, Edward F Kelly was born and he subsequently moved from Ste. Brigitte de Laval to Montréal where he met and married Mary Christina Prescott.  Christopher Prescott and wife, Ellen Bulman (Parents of Mary Christina) may have been a part of the great Famine Migration of the Irish to North America.  They were both born around 1840 in Ireland and came to Canada sometime afterwards.  A little mystery about Christopher and Ellen may have been solved with DNA information. 

Christopher and Ellen were married in a Montréal Methodist Church in 1866 implying they were of the Protestant faith.  By 1867, their first son, Joseph was born and subsequently baptized in a Catholic Church.  All further children and funerals for Christopher and Ellen were performed in Catholic churches suggesting that they had indeed converted.  The DNA reference made earlier put me in touch with a Ron Price in Belfast, Ireland who also descends from a Prescott.  While we are very distant cousins and there is no reliable evidence that we are talking about the same Prescotts, Ron did convey that the Prescott name is not one that would have come from the southern Ireland (Catholic) area.  People from the North would have been members of the Church of Ireland or Church of England and would have easily been married in a Methodist Church.  Christopher and Ellen were identified in the 1871 Canada census as Church of England then in the 1881 census they were declared to be Roman Catholic. 

Their daughter Mary Christina married Edward F Kelly and gave birth to my mother Helena Frances Kelly.

A couple of interesting things about the Irish immigration in Canada.  In 1831, approximately 34,000 Irish arrived in Montréal, more than doubling the city population at the time.  Try to imagine the culture shock for the existing population of French Canadians!  During the Great Irish Famine of 1845-1852 approximately 25% of the population of Ireland was eliminated through starvation and emigration (to avoid the starvation).  In 1851 the population of Ireland was over 8 million and in 2015 the population of the island of Ireland was a little over 6 million.  This may be the only country that has not recovered from the famine and migration of the 19^th century.