James O'Connor Journal

          February 1845:
            The potato famine has been the a horrible moment in my life right now. My family has become so poor that we haven't eaten in days because the crops won't grow for nothing and we can't eat the tomatoes. My parents and I have been talking and the only way that we can survive the rest of our lifes only if we escape from Ireland and go to what people call the "land of opportunity" or the United States. We do not want to leave anyone behind so in a few minths we will get enough money to go and we have no other choice.

          May 1845:
            Right now we are getting ready to leave to the United States. The whole O'Connor family is here and we are getting ready to leave to the US. In the boat there are many families just like ours that want to have a better life in the US. They all wanted to start over again and have a better life. In the boat the food was very scarce, we could only eat once a day so that everyone in the boat could eat. I have seen 2 people die from starvation and 1 person from some disease that most people got.

          June 1845:
            A month has passed since we left Ireland and i have already lost 2 of my family members, my grandmother and sister, to the weird disease that has everyone horrible. It is horrible and I am starving right now because we can only eat like once every 2 days because food has now dropped down a lot and more people have died from starvation. We are very close to the US i can just feel it, we only have to survive a couple more weeks. This trip has actually been endless, the minutes seem like hours and hours seem like days.

          July 1845:
            We have finally arrived to the United States!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wow, I feel so happy right now, we have survived that long endless trip and made it to the US. Now the hard part is going to be starting all over again, getting a jod and have a nice life over here. We now live in a community that everyone is Irish immigrants, which was an advantage for me and my fa,ily because we keeped our culture intact. I got a job as a firemen, a real tuff and hard working job, but it's better than nothing and it pays good. I think this is the start of a new and happy life.