After analyzing the bones found during work at a light rail station in Montreal, an archaeological laboratory is revealing new details about the lives of Irish migrants who died there in 1847.
The 2019 archaeological excavation at Pointe-Sainte-Charles, where Irish fleeing potato starvation were quarantined and, if they did not survive, buried, revealed 14 bodies, including seven adults, three teenagers and four children.
After two years of analysis, the preliminary results were presented to the Irish community, who found them touching and “amazing,” according to Victor Boyle, president of the Montreal Irish Monument Park Foundation.
Fractures, bacterial infections, chronic diseases and signs of malnutrition provide a window into the lives of Irish migrants in the mid-19th century, said bioarchaeologist Marine Puech at the Ethnoscop Laboratory in Boucherville, Que.
Puech says most were from the countryside in the south west of Ireland and the laboratory was able to indicate the time of his death between August and September 1847.
Ethnoscop has had the bones for two years. After cleaning them and collecting soil samples, they were able to estimate the sex and age of the individuals and identify the pathologies.
The results showed unspecified stress and dietary deficiencies such as iron, as well as notable levels of lead.
Some diseases, such as typhus, leave no marks on the bones. But traces of malnutrition were found, which probably weakened people and made them more susceptible to disease.
Victor Boyle, president of the Montreal Irish Monument Park Foundation, said the lab results have made the remains feel more like people, not just bones. (Rowan Kennedy / CBC)
Irish migrants fleeing famine faced poor conditions at home, Puech said, and once on the boats, things did not improve. The boats were often so full that it was not uncommon for more than 200 migrants to be near wet summers, conditions that could easily have spread typhus. Many died at sea or shortly after arrival.
“It’s amazing. First they found coffin remains, artifacts, then bones. But even as bones, they were just bones,” Boyle said.
“But to show them in the lab, these bones look like a complete skeleton, listening to what their diet was, what part of Ireland they probably were from. Now there’s a person lying on that table.”
As the place was known, a few steps from the Black Rock monument that marked a burial site of about 6,000 people, the workers of the Réseau express métropolitain (REM) knew they would find remains.
The bodies were found in coffins that had been arranged to save space, often piled on top of each other.
Railway workers made sure to maintain a dialogue with the Irish community while doing their excavations, said REM Deputy Director of Environment Elizabeth Boivin.
“We have to be especially careful,” he said. “It’s a very sensitive issue.”
The Irish community in Montreal has insisted for years that the bodies were buried in the area, but REM excavations led to early exhumations, Boivin said.
“I’ve never worked like that, so close to the community,” said Puech, who is happy to be “giving voice to people.”
The labs were surprised by a finding: two of the people probably did not come from Ireland. The remains will soon be sent to a laboratory in Trois-Rivières where the DNA will be sequenced in the hope of finding living offspring.