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Information Wanted

WRITERS conducting online research for historical novels set in 19th and 20th century America may now read contemporaneous advertisements seeking information on lost relatives, employers, employees, lovers, spouses, and all sorts of people.

From October 1831 to October 1921, the Boston Pilot newspaper printed a “Missing Friends” column with advertisements from people looking for “lost” friends and relatives who had emigrated from Ireland to the United States. The collection of more than 31,438 records is now available as a searchable online database, which contains a text record for each ad that appeared in the Pilot.

The advertisements contain the ordinary and revealing details about the missing person’s life: the county and parish of their birth, when they left Ireland, the believed port of arrival in North America, the ship they sailed upon, their occupation, and other personal information. The ads included a contact point for the missing person to leave a message with for the advertiser.

The introduction to the column read: "Advertisements under this head are inserted three times one dollar. The immense circulation of the Pilot in every city, town, and hamlet on the American Continent, renders it the best medium through which to make inquiries about lost friends. More than three-fourths of those advertised for are found. Persons wishing their friends advertised, can send us a dollar enclosed in a letter, with the advertisement written as legibly as possible, in order that no mistakes are made by the printer."

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