Series 4 - Greeves-O'Brien letters

517pp

These reproductions were provided to Kerby A. Miller by PRONI and are copied from the Greeves Letters, a set of letter transcriptions completed in June 1956 by J.R.H. Greeves and deposited by Greeves in PRONI [reference number D592]. Greeves provided his endorsement for Miller to publish the letters via letter of 16 February 1978. With regards to letters 29 through 1968, per Greeves' introduction in the transcript set, 'The originals of these letters were lent to me for copying by Mrs L. Bell Sinton, of 1618 Cheyenne Boulevard, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA. They are now again in her possession or in that of other members of the family of Sinton, whose name was originally O'Brien, descendants of William and Ann (nee Greeves) O'Brien.'

The Greeves-O’Brien letters are a tranche of 162 letters written between 1810 and 1869 documenting several intermarried Quaker families (Heazelton, Greeves, O’Brien, Sinton, Bell) who emigrated to the northeastern United States in the years following the Revolutionary War. The letters depict both the close relations of the small-but-influential Irish Quaker community, and the slow unravelling of familial bonds as time, distance, and cultural assimilation take their tolls. Many of the people documented in the Greeves-O’Brien letters played major roles in the European settlement and development of northern Pennsylvania and western New York.
The series contains J.R.H. Greeves’ transcripts of all 162 letters, his introduction to the letters including a family history and letter catalogues, and his correspondence with Kerby A. Miller regarding the letters and his family.