Retrace Your Ancestor's Immigration at Quebec's Gross Ile

Story and photos by Judith Liddell

A visit to Grosse Île and the Irish Memorial National Historic Site, in the St. Lawrence River not too far from Quebec, provides an opportunity for visitors to retrace Canada’s immigration story, and perhaps their own family’s journey as well.

Private tour companies offer passenger ferry service to Grosse Île at four locations: Les Croisières Lachance offers several crossings from Berthier sur Mer; Les Croisières le Coudrier leaves from the Old Port at Quebec City; and Les Croisières le Coudrier offers sailings from Saint-Laurent at Île d'Orléans and Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré. The entrance fee to the national park is included in the fare.

A living history site, visitors tour the island via trolley, with the assistance of costumed and either French or English-speaking guides. The tour provides an opportunity to reflect on the immigrant experience. The main buildings are wheelchair accessible and visitors with disabilities are assisted to access the trolley.

The first stop is the disinfection station where a ‘nurse’ and ‘doctor’ question volunteers from the group about their health, using the same questions posed to nineteenth century immigrants. As you follow their footsteps, it makes current-day customs processing and airport security checks pale in comparison. Photographs encourage visitors to imagine themselves as an immigrant. How terrifying and overwhelming to leave the ship, perhaps holding a baby with one arm, probably a suitcase with their worldly possessions in the other, and maybe a toddler hanging on to the edge of it. Many were weak from famine before embarking and spent the 60 day trip across the Atlantic packed in the cargo hold of the ship.

As you proceed through the disinfection station, you pass one of the shower cubicles where the arrivals were required to remove all of their clothing, put it in a sack that was tagged and placed with their luggage in a mesh basket that was rolled through a hot steam disinfectant process. Further along the corridor you reach the point where the immigrants’ clothes were returned to them after they showered.

Displays present the contributions of Dr. Frederick Montizambert to bacteriology and the development of effective quarantine procedures.

The next stop is the dormitories. If there were sick travelers on the ship, the healthy passengers were detained on the island until the incubation period was over. Originally, all of the passengers were housed together in what became the 2nd Class Dormitory. Eventually, separate dormitories were built to simulate the three levels of ship accommodations. In the third class dormitory a mother and her children shared a small room with five other women, the children sharing a bunk with their mothers. Like today’s hostels, there were communal cooking facilities. The first class accommodations, called a hotel, had private rooms and a chef to prepare meals.

Today when you visit the third class dormitory, you can enjoy light refreshments in the cafeteria. There are also picnic facilities for those who bring their own food.

The trolley travels through the central section where employees who worked on the island had their homes, attended school and went to church. The route then enters the eastern quarantine section and stops at the hospital. As you walk through the hospital ward, look for the notes written on the wall which are preserved with a clear plastic shield. In some cases, a nurse’s scrawl documented a patient’s condition. Others were scratched by patients and marked their stay, e.g. John Andrew, 9 Oct. 1847.

After finishing the trolley tour, follow a short trail to the Celtic Cross and Irish Memorial. This monument stands on the island’s highest point and honors the 5,424 Irish immigrants who died here during the 1847 typhoid epidemic, as well as medical and other personnel who died caring for the sick. Inscriptions on the memorial are in English, French and Gaelic.

The French and English inscriptions read:

"...to the sacred memory of thousands of Irish who, in order to preserve their faith, suffered famine and exile, and, victims of typhus, ended their sorrowful pilgrimage here, comforted and strengthened by the Canadian Priests. Those who sow in tears reap in joy."

The Gaelic inscription reads:

"Children of the Gael died in their thousands on this island having fled from the laws of the foreign tyrants and an artificial famine in the years 1847-48. God's loyal blessing upon them. Let this monument be a token to their name and honour from the Gaels of America. God Save Ireland."

A cemetery sits in a small valley at the base of the hill. Humps delineate the mass graves. Nearby the Famine Memorial is encircled with glass panels itemizing the names by year of the immigrants that died on Grosse Île. Etched symbols represent the unnamed individuals that perished on the island.

As you board the ferry to return to Quebec, pause to reflect on the immigrants who made a similar boat ride after their release from quarantine - the final leg in their journey to a new home.