In the 1850s, many Quebec families adopted Irish orphans, their parents dead from ship's fever on the Atlantic crossing

The Irish and the French Canadians share a part of history that goes back more than 150 years, at a time when waves of European immigrants were flooding into Canada, most of them arriving first in Quebec. One tragic episode occurred in 1847.

That year, poverty, overpopulation and famine in Ireland had reached a crisis point, unleashing a mass exodus to British North America. In April, more than 28,000 families were crammed into timber transport ships bound for Quebec City, the main port on the St. Lawrence.

During the long crossing, malnutrition and overcrowding hastened the spread of typhoid fever. Of the 240 immigrants on board one ship alone, 9 died at sea and another 40 died on arrival at the quarantine station of Grosse Isle near Montmagny.