PG 14

Plentiful Country: The Irish Potato Famine & the Making of Irish New York, PG 14

“In that era, banks typically asked for only three pieces of information from their customers: name, address, and occupation. Yet the Emigrant Bank also required depositors to disclose their precise birth town, parish, and county in Ireland, the name of the ship that brought them to America and the port that it landed, the names and whereabouts of their parents (including their mother’s maiden name), and the names and locations of their siblings and children. The bank periodically updated this information, noting new addresses and occupations, spousal deaths, remarriages, and the like.”