Research Materials

The sources illustrating the characters’ journeys were varied. Whaling logs to ship manifests and passenger lists for crossing the Atlantic and the world are presented. There are federal and state census records with information like addresses, family members, occupations, nationality, net worth, acreage and what crops were grown. Maps help situate characters, while bank and employment records illustrate quotidian lives. Birth, death, marriage, war and newspaper records, as well as burial locations, show the passages of each character’s lives. 

Chapter One

Missing Friends advertisement placed by Michael Heffernan in 1864
Ruth-Ann M. Harris, Donald M. Jacobs, and B. Emer O’Keeffe, eds., Searching for Missing Friends: Irish Immigrant Advertisements Placed in the Boston Pilot, vol. 5, 1861–1865 (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1989), 365.

Murtagh MacEirc
Sidney Lee, ed., Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 39, Morehead–Myles (New York: Macmillan, 1894), 271.
Learn more 

Story of Termonmaguirk
Somerset Richard Lowry-Corry, Earl of Belmore, The History of the Two Ulster Manors of Finagh, in the County of Tyrone, and Coole, Otherwise Manor Atkinson, in the County of Fermanagh, and of Their Owners (London: Longmans, Green & Company, 1881), 318.
Learn more

Map of Termonmaguirk County Tyrone

Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors

Bell of Saint Colmcille
Bourke, Cormac. The Early Medieval Hand-bells of Ireland and Britan. (Ireland: Wordwell, Published in association with the National Museum of Ireland), pages 552, 553.

McGuirk’s Farm in Ireland

Photograph by Susan McGuirk
The National Archives of Ireland, Tithe Applotment Books, 1823–1837, Census of Mullinclavin, Magheracloone, Monaghan, Ireland, 1832.
Learn more

Passage of Catherine and Terrence McGuirk and Patrick Lynch aboard the Queen Victoria
United States Bureau of Customs, Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, 1820–1897 (Washington: National Archives and Records Service, 1957), 180–89.
Learn more

Erca Princess of Dal Riata
Sidney Lee, ed., Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 39, Morehead–Myles (New York: Macmillan, 1894), 271.
Learn more

Main Street Village of Sag Harbor, New York

Photograph from the John Jermain Memorial Library Local History Archives Center

Cabra Castle, Kingscourt Ireland, Sir George Foster, owner 1840

Photograph by Joseph Mischyshyn
Samuel Lewis, Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 2nd ed., vol. 2 (London: S. Lewis & Co., 1837), 187.
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license
Learn more

Shops on Main Street of Sag Harbor
Dorothy Zaykowski, Sag Harbor: The Story of an American Beauty (Sag Harbor: The Sag Harbor Historical Society, 1991), part III.

Nassau Hotel
Dorothy Zaykowski, Sag Harbor: The Story of an American Beauty (Sag Harbor: The Sag Harbor Historical Society, 1991), 199.

Herman Melville in Sag Harbor
Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or The Whale (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1851), 67, 70, 282, 363.

Michael Heffernan’s birth
Catholic Parish Registers at the NLI Cashel | Microfilm 02501 / 02 Diocese of Cashel and Emly | County of Tipperary
Baptisms 11 Nov. 1793 to 19 Jul. 1831 Page 145; Oct. 1826 to Nov. 1826.
Learn more

Irish Society School
Samuel Lewis, Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 2nd ed., vol. 2 (London: S. Lewis & Co., 1837), 187.
Learn more

Passage of Susan Fee
United States Bureau of Customs, Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, 1820–1897 (Washington: National Archives and Records Service, 1957), M237 Roll 57, 40.
Learn more

Residence of William Heffernan in Southampton, New York
Kenneth Scott & Rosanne Conway, New York Alien Residents, 1825–1848 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1978), 51.
Learn more

Chapter Two

James Fenimore Cooper in Sag Harbor
James Fenimore Cooper, Correspondence of James Fenimore-Cooper, vol. 1 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1922), 37.
Learn more

Typical Whaling Route Between New York and the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii)

© 2010 Martha’s Vineyard Museum
Learn more

Record of Charles Fee as a whaler
William Donaldson Halsey, Sketches from Local History (Bridgehampton: H. Lee, 1935), 111.

Jane Perdue residence, 1850 US Census
United States Census 1850, East Hampton, NY, pg 348, dwelling #1219.
Learn more

Mulford family as slaveholders
Allison Manfra McGovern, “Disrupting the Narrative: Labor and Survivance for the Montauketts of Eastern Long Island” (PhD diss., CUNY Graduate Center, 2015), 413.
The National Archives in Washington, DC; First Census of the United States, 1790; Census Place: East Hampton, Suffolk, New York; Series: M637; Roll 6; Page: 150.
Learn more

Whaling deity of Shinnecock and Montaukett tribes
Harvard Ed Portal
Learn more

Montaukett tribe scattered and Jane Perdue biographical note
Emily Button, “Navigating Difference: The Archaeology of Identities in an American Whaling Port” (PhD diss., Brown University, 2015), 330.
Learn more

Saint David A.M.E. Zion Church in Sag Harbor, New York

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license
Photograph by CaptJayRuffins

Marriage of Catherine McGuirk and Michael Heffernan
John H. Hunt, The Fourth Book of Records of the Town of Southampton with a List of Soldiers and Sailors in the Union Forces of the Civil War (Sag Harbor: John H. Hunt, 1896), 128.
Learn more

Chapter Three

Passage of Isabella O’Brien
United States Bureau of Customs, Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, 1820–1897 (Washington: National Archives and Records Service, 1957), M237 Roll 63, 402.
Learn more

Wyandanch Hotel, Greenport, NY

George Bradford Brainerd
Brooklyn Museum/Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn Collection

Walt Whitman in Greenport
Walt Whitman, “Letters from Paumanok,” in The Walt Whitman Archive, ed. Jason Stacy (27 June 1851). Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, and Kenneth M. Price.
Walt Whitman, Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts, ed. Edward F. Grier (New York: New York University Press, 1984), 1:86–87.
Learn more

Men of Sag Harbor leaving for the Gold Rush
Dorothy Zaykowski, Sag Harbor: The Story of an American Beauty (Sag Harbor: The Sag Harbor Historical Society, 1991), 106.

Silas Perdue’s advertisement in the Sag Harbor Corrector
Letter stating that his wife Jane had left him after “robbing” him of bed and board, and that he would not pay any debts she accrued, Sag Harbor Corrector, December 6, 1848. Cited in Emily Button, Navigating Difference: The Archaeology of Identities in an American Whaling Port (PhD diss., Brown University, 2015), 311.

Book collection of Jane Perdue
Emily Button, “Navigating Difference: The Archaeology of Identities in an American Whaling Port” (PhD diss., Brown University, 2015), 180.
Learn more

Birth of Mary Ellen “Mamie” McGuirk
Hunt, John H. The Fourth Book of Records of the Town of Southampton with a list of Soldiers and Sailors in the Union Forces of the Civil War. (Sag Harbor, NY: John H. Hunt, 1896), 149. (163 online), part 3.
Learn more

Possible record of Catherine Heffernan giving birth
John H. Hunt, The Fourth Book of Records of the Town of Southampton with a List of Soldiers and Sailors in the Union Forces of the Civil War (Sag Harbor: John H. Hunt, 1896), 156.
Learn more

Jane Perdue’s dreams
John Price, Indians of Canada: Cultural Dynamic (Scarborough, Ontario: Prentice-Hall of Canada, 1979), 81, 172.

Saint Andrew’s Cemetery in Sag Harbor, New York

Courtesy of St. Andrew’s Church, Sag Harbor, New York

Chapter Four

Residence of Catherine and Ellen Heffernan, 1850 US Census
1850 New York Federal Population Census Schedules — New York City United States Census 1850, New York, NY, Ward 5, p. 278, domicile #1019. Provided in association with National Archives and Records Administration.
Learn more

Map of 155 Hudson Street between Laight Street and Hubert Street New York City

Learn more

Saint John’s Park, Hudson Street, New York

(CC BY-SA 4.0GFDL)

Residences of Tor (translated) and Susan McGuirk, and Elisha Halsey 1850 US Census
United States Census 1850, Southampton, NY, pg 192, domicile # 74, domicile # 71. Provided in association with the National Archives and Records Administration.
Learn more

Residence of Frank and Isabella McGuirk, 1850 US Census
United States Census 1850, East Hampton, NY, pg 348, domicile # 1220. Provided in association with the National Archives and Records Administration.
Learn more

Residence of Patrick Lynch, 1850 US Census
United States Census 1850, New York City. New York, New York, Ward 3, p. 349, domicile #150, line 22. Provided in association with the National Archives and Records Administration.
Learn more

Passage of Patrick Lynch on business to Panama and Jamaica
United States Bureau of Customs, Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, 1820–1897, (Washington: National Archives and Records Service, 1957), M237 Roll 85, 561.
Learn more

Passage of Patrick Lynch to San Francisco on business in 1850
Louis J. Rasmussen, San Francisco Ship Passenger Lists, vol. 1. 1850-1864 (Colma, California: Louis J. Rasmussen, 1965); (Reprint: Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1978).

Passage of Johnny McGuirk from Liverpool to New York
United States Bureau of Customs, “Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, 1820–1897” (Washington: National Archives and Records Service, 1957) M237 Roll 89, 660.
Learn more

Passage of Frank and Johnny McGuirk to the Gold Rush
Louis J. Rasmussen, San Francisco Ship Passenger Lists, vol. 2. [1850-1851] (Colma, California: Clearfield Company Inc., 1966), 227.

Chapter Five

Saint Peter’s Church, Barclay Street, New York City

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International, 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license.
Photograph by Beyond My Ken

Pierre Toussaint 1766–1853

By Anthony Meucci
Gift of Georgina Schuyler
Source: © Collection of the New-York Historical Society/Bridgeman Art Library

Grave of Pierre Toussaint at Old Saint Patrick’s Cathedral Graveyard

263 Mulberry Street, New York City
Creator: Manjari Sharma, photographer
Source: © Curriculum Concepts International

Jane Perdue’s collection
Emily Button, “Navigating Difference: The Archaeology of Identities in an American Whaling Port” (PhD diss., Brown University, 2015), 183.
Learn more

Women’s Rights Convention
Document 15: Proceedings of the Woman’s Rights Convention, held at the Broadway Tabernacle, in the City of New York, on Tuesday and Wednesday, Sept. 6th and 7th, 1853 (New York: Fowler and Wells, Publishers, 1853), 96. 

Passage of Frank and Johnny McGuirk from the Gold Rush to New York
United States Bureau of Customs, Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, 1820–1897 (Washington: National Archives and Records Service, 1957), M237 Roll 150, 434, 436.
Learn more

Advertisement placed by Walt Whitman for Leaves of Grass
Blalock, Stephanie. “Documents Related to the 1855 Leaves of Grass: Early Draft Advertisements.” The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 24 July 2025.
Learn more

Passage of Patrick Lynch to Nicaragua
United States Bureau of Customs, Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, 1820–1897 (Washington: National Archives and Records Service, 1957), M237 Roll 158, 166.
Learn more

Passage of Michael Heffernan from the Gold Rush to New York
United States Bureau of Customs, Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, 1820–1897 (Washington: National Archives and Records Service, 1957), M237 Roll 150, 78.
Learn more

Whaling Log of the Bark Neva recorded by Michael Heffernan

George A. Conklin, Journal kept by George A. Conklin on board bark Neva from Greenport, George L. Hand, master, bound for Pacific, Sep 28, 1857–Oct 20, 1859.
Courtesy of the East Hampton Library, Long Island Collection

St. Colmcille’s exile on the island of Iona
Thomas Cahill, How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe (New York: Doubleday, 1995), 171.

Residence of Betsey Fee Josey and John “Joe” Josey, 1860 US Census
1860 United States Federal Census, Southampton, NY, p. 14, dwelling #101. Provided in association with the National Archives and Records Administration.
Learn more

John “Joe” Josey voyage
Bark Byron: 1855-1857
American Offshore Whaling Database
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
New Bedford Whaling Museum
Learn more

Chapter Six

Residence of Joseph Bose in Canada
1851 Census of Canada East, p. 31. Public Archives of Canada Microfilmed 1955.

Residence of Tor (translated) and Susan McGuirk 1860 US Census
1860 United States Federal Census, Southampton, NY, p. 14, dwelling #844. Provided in association with the National Archives and Records Administration.
Learn more

Tomasina Farm  Bridgehampton, New York

1900 Map of Bridgehampton Compiled by William Halsey, drawn by Godfrey H. Baldwin, 1924.
William Donaldson Halsey, Sketches from Local History (Bridgehampton: H. Lee, 1935), 204.

Residence of Johnny McGuirk and niece Mary E. “Mamie” McGuirk 1860 US Census
1860 United States Federal Census, Southampton, NY, p. 68, dwelling #1264, #1263. Provided in association with the National Archives and Records Administration.
Learn more

Residence of Catherine Heffernan, Patrick Lynch, and Bose family 1860 US Census
1860 United States Federal Census, New York City Ward 1, p. 80, dwelling #152. Provided in association with the National Archives and Records Administration.
Learn more

Death of Michael “Mickey” Lynch
New York City Municipal Archives; New York, NY, USA; Manhattan Vital Registers; Source Record Group: RG 095 Vital Records.
Learn More

Residence of Frank McGuirk, 1860 US Census
1860 United States Federal Census, Southampton, NY, p. 44, dwelling #1085. Provided in association with the National Archives and Records Administration.
Learn more

Residence of Isabella McGuirk, 1860 US Census
1860 United States Federal Census, Southampton, NY, p. 70, dwelling #1279. Provided in association with the National Archives and Records Administration.
Learn more

Residence of Jane Perdue, 1860 US Census
1860 United States Federal Census, Easthampton, NY, p. 508, dwelling #358. Provided in association with the National Archives and Records Administration.
Learn more

Patrick Lynch’s war service
Vol 11 – 85 N.Y. S. V. Muster In Roll of the First Regiment of US Chasseurs Volunteers, Company C July 11, 1861, p. 679 (7). DMNA NY Yale University Archive
Learn more

Chapter Seven

Record of Frank and Johnny McGuirk volunteering for the Civil War
William Donaldson Halsey, Sketches from Local History (Bridgehampton: H. Lee, 1935), 85.
Learn more

Frank McGuirk’s war service
New York State Military Museum and Veterans Research Center
165th Infantry Regiment
Nickname: Second Battalion Duryea’s Zouaves; Smith’s Zouaves.
REPORT OF THE ADJUTANT-GENERAL. McGUIRK, FRANK.— Age, 36 years. Enlisted, September 10, 1862, at New York City, to serve three years; mustered in as private, Co. C, November 28, 1862; killed in action, May 27, 1863, before Port Hudson, La.

Record of George Perdue as a whaleman
Bark Joshua Braydon: 1853-1857
American Crew List Database
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
New Bedford Whaling Museum
Learn more

U.S., Civil War Draft Registrations Records, 1863-1865 for George Perdue
The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC, USA; Consolidated Lists of Civil War Draft Registration Records (Provost Marshal General’s Bureau; Consolidated Enrollment Lists, 1863-1865); Record Group: 110; Collection Name: Consolidated Enrollment Lists, 1863-1865 (Civil War Union Draft Records); NAI: 4213514; Archive Volume Number: 2 of 3

Johnny McGuirk’s second enlistment in the Civil War
James Truslow Adams, History of the Town of Southampton (East of Canoe Place)
(Bridgehampton: Hampton Press, 1918), “List of Soldiers and Sailors in Civil War,” 398.
Learn more

Missing Friends advertisement placed by Ellen Heffernan in 1864
Ruth-Ann M. Harris, Donald M. Jacobs, and B. Emer O’Keeffe, eds., Searching for Missing Friends: Irish Immigrant Advertisements Placed in the Boston Pilot, vol. 5, 1861–1865 (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1989), 258.

Residence of Jane Perdue, 1870 Census

Photograph by Susan McGuirk
Population schedules of the ninth census of the United Stated, 1870, New York, p. 40, Dwelling #30, #7.
Provided in association with the National Archives and Records Administration. Emily Button, “Navigating Difference: The Archaeology of Identities in an American Whaling Port” (PhD diss., Brown University, 2015), 138.
Learn more

Chapter Eight

Marriage Bans of Delphina Bechet in Paris, France

Archives de Paris et sa région: Publications des bans de Mariages 1860-1930. Paris: ARFIDO S.A., 2006. © ARFIDO S.A.

Death of Patrick Lynch
Date of Interment: November 28, 1868
System: CEM
Section: LETT | Row: A | Plot: 53
Holy Cross Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York.

Doctor John “Jack” McGuirk residence
H. Wilson, Trow’s New York City Directory, vol. 83, for the Year ending May 1, 1870 (New York: John F. Trow, 1870), 739, source 707.

Missing Friends advertisement placed by Michael Heffernan in 1868
Ruth-Ann M. Harris, Donald M. Jacobs, and B. Emer O’Keeffe, eds., Searching for Missing Friends: Irish Immigrant Advertisements Placed in the Boston Pilot, vol. 6, 1866–1870 (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1989), 396.

Record of Michael Heffernan’s bequest to wife, Catherine, from Sag Harbor Corrector 1868

Elizabeth Seton by Unknown Artist

Collection of St. Peter’s Church, Barclay Street, New York, NY

Chapter Nine

Grave of Silas and Jane Perdue in Saint David A.M.E. Zion Church Graveyard

Photograph by Susan McGuirk

Death record of Catherine Heffernan
Holy Cross Cemetery, Brooklyn, NY.
U.S. Census Mortality Schedules, New York, 1850-1880; New York State Education Department, Office of Cultural Education; Albany, New York; Year: 1870; Roll: M7; Line Number: 26.
Provided in association with the National Archives and Records Administration.

Civil War service record of Michael Heffernan
Official Roster of the Soldiers of the State of Ohio in the War of the Rebellion, 1861–1866, vol. 5 (Akron: Werner, 1887), 310.
Learn more

Maritime Underground Railroad
Southampton Press, August 27, 2014. Historical Society Sets Out To Uncover Sag Harbor’s Involvement With The Underground Railroad Walker, Timothy D., editor. Sailing to Freedom: Maritime Dimensions of the Underground Railroad. University of Massachusets Press, 2021.

Epilogue

Employment of Francis McGuirk in Brooklyn
Brooklyn City and Business Directory for the year ending May 1, 1869.
Learn more

Banking Records of Catherine Heffernan
Emigrant Savings Bank. Emigrant Savings Bank Records. Call number *R-USLHG *ZI-815. Rolls 1-20. New York Public Library, New York, New York.

Residence of John Josey, 1870 US Census
Population schedules of the ninth census of the United States, 1870, New York, p. 336, dwelling #283.
Provided in association with the National Archives and Records Administration.
Learn more

Cross Street in Sag Harbor

Photograph by Susan McGuirk

Residence of Johnny McGuirk, 1870 US Census
Population schedules of the ninth census of the United States, 1870, New York, p. 374, dwelling #594. Provided in association with the National Archives and Records Administration.
Learn more

Residence of Michael Heffernan, 1870 US Census
Population schedules of the ninth census of the United States, 1870, Ohio, p. 254, dwelling #256. Provided in association with the National Archives and Records Administration.
Learn more

Residence of Tor (translated) McGuirk and Doctor John “Jack” McGuirk, 1870 Census
Population schedules of the ninth census of the United States, 1870, New York, p. 368, dwelling #538. Provided in association with the National Archives and Records Administration.
Learn more