MAJOR NEW STUDY LAUNCHED IN COUNTY WEXFORD
A major new research initiative examining how and why so many people from Wexford and the South East emigrated to Savannah Georgia in the 19th Century has been launched.
The study is also set to look at the impact that migration had on the lives of generations of Irish and Americans on either side of the Atlantic.
The initiative called the Wexford-Savannah axis is a collaboratiive research project between Waterford Institute of Technology, Georgia Southern University, the Georgia Historical Society in Savannah and the John F Kennedy Trust based in New Ross in Wexford.
Many people in the Savannah area in Georgia claim Irish ancestry and many of those within the Irish-American community in Savannah can trace their ancestry to the South East of Ireland and particularly Wexford.
How and why these people travelled to Savannah in particular, why they settled there and did not move on and how they prospered are just some of the questions that researchers in WIT and in Georgia will seek to answer.
