While vacationing in my beautiful hometown, I had the opportunity to shoot an assignment for UpMagazine. This assignment brought me to historic Grosse Île.

From Wikipedia: “Grosse Isle is an island in the St. Lawrence River east of Quebec, situated in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Canada. It is one of the islands of the 21-island Isle-aux-Grues archipelago. It is part of the municipality of Saint-Antoine-de-l’Isle-aux-Grues, located in the Chaudière-Appalaches region.
Also known as the Irish Memorial National Historic Site of Canada, the island was the site of an immigration depot which predominantly housed Irish Immigrants coming to Canada to escape the Great Irish Famine, 1845-1849. In 1832, the Lower Canadian Government set up this depot to contain the cholera epidemic at that time that was believed to be caused by the large influx of European immigrants. Thousands of Irish were quarantined on Grosse Isle from 1832 to 1847.
It is believed that over 3000 Irish died on the island and over 5000 are currently buried in the cemetery there; many died en route. Most who died on the island were infected with typhus, which sprang up from the conditions there in 1847. Grosse Isle is the largest Irish potato famine burial ground outside Ireland. After Confederation, the buildings and equipment were modernized to meet the standards of the new Canadian government’s immigration policies. The island is sometimes called Canada’s Ellis Island, although this term is also used to describe the Pier 21 immigration facility in Halifax.”