Fenian bonds

hblock21

They must have surely kept some kind of register of people who bought a Fenian Bond in 1866. I have never come across anything of the like so I'm just throwing out the question?
Thinking again, perhaps anyone wanting to buy one would not like a record of the purchase kept and therefore no records ever existed.

Waitsian

http://www.rarecoin.com/library/Fenian.html


Have you tried contacting the A.O.H. in the States?

Jellybaby1

mod9maple wrote: »

http://www.rarecoin.com/library/Fenian.html


Have you tried contacting the A.O.H. in the States?

Thank you for putting up that link. I had never heard about those bonds.

Quote "The early U.S. Navy had so many Irish that official orders were written and spoke in Irish not English." - really?

Waitsian

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

Thank you for putting up that link. I had never heard about those bonds.

Quote "The early U.S. Navy had so many Irish that official orders were written and spoke in Irish not English." - really?

Here's another thing along the same lines - anyone a big fan of Westerns? Check out any film set during the so-called Indian wars; all the Cavalry troops have American drawls and speak perfect English. As an experiment go check the list of those who died with Custer at the Little Bighorn. Not only are many of the troops Irish but some were fresh off the boat. Think they all spoke English? Think again. At the very least they spoke colloquial English with a variety of accents from here. There were also other Europeans like German and Scandinavian. No-one would think it watching a film.

Jellybaby1

I keep forgetting that Custer actually fought the real Americans! Everyone else was from somewhere else. I think its time for an authentic remake of Custer's Last Stand!

pedroeibar1

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

Quote "The early U.S. Navy had so many Irish that official orders were written and spoke in Irish not English." - really?

Nonsense, they obviously never read about the stopping and press-ganging of former British sailors from American ships. Or the action between HMS Leopard and the USS Chesapeake Or the nonsense claim on the same site "In England the Revolutionary War was called "The Irish Uprising in the American Colonies".

hblock21

Thanks for the replies. I did not expect to get a definitive answer - as I suspect there is no register.
I was only thinking about it the other night when I was looking at a Fenian Bond that I have. It has a number on the top corner which got me thinking. Wouldn't it be cool to discover who originally bought this bond and if there was a register that corresponds with each number issued.
If there was a register kept it would be a pretty impressive source for genealogists, especially those in America looking at there ancestors.

Coolnabacky1873

hblock21 wrote: »

If there was a register kept it would be a pretty impressive source for genealogists, especially those in America looking at there ancestors.

Oh how I wish. I've done research on what records might still exist for 19th C Irish organizations in the US. The short answer is very few unfortunately. There are some for various organizations in the late 19th C but I have not come across many from the mid 19th C (NY Emigrant Savings Bank being an exception).

pedroeibar1

It’s highly probable that there never was a ‘register’ of the bond holders.

A bond is an investment in an entity, iusually higher in the scheme of things than a share/equity. The return on the bond investment usually is paid semi-annually and called the ‘coupon’ rather than interest. The reason for this dates to the manner in which proof of the investment was shown by a printed/engraved bond, along the side of which was a strip of coupons, each one of which was dated. On the appropriate date the bondholder tore off a coupon, presented it to the bank and was paid his ‘interest’ or ‘coupon’. At the end of the period the bond was handed in (‘redeemed’) and the investor got the capital sum back. As these bonds were ‘bearer’ bonds they were untraceable so if you lost your bond you lost your proof of ownership/investment as there was no register. (Hence their use in James Bond type movies where the baddie always wants the ransome or pay-off in bearer bonds!)

Looking at an online image of a Fenian bond there are no coupons. Instead, interest was at a rate of six percent per anum, with all to be repaid within six months after the acknowledgement of the independence of the Irish nation. They eventually were honoured by De Valera and those who could produce the actual bonds got the cash!