Series 4 - John Ard and Eliza Dornan letters

536pp

Copies of the Ard and Dornan letters were provided to Kerby A. Miller by his longtime collaborator Dr. Arnold Schrier. Per Schrier: 'The originals of these letters were in the possession of Miss Elizabeth Smyth, Church Road, Ballynahinch, Co. Down, Northern Ireland, who sent me copies on January 5, 1955.'

Materials pertaining to letters written by siblings John Ard and Eliza Dornan.
Per Arnold Schrier's correspondence with the donor: 'Two of the letters were received by Roger Ard, of Magheradroll, Ballynahinch, and the other by Samuel Ard, his nephew, after Roger's death. The writers of the letters were John Ard and Eliza Dornan, brother and sister of Roger, who emigrated to America about the year 1853. Roger Ard was a farmer and owned his own farm in the townland of Magheradroll. The farm consisted of 8 acres, a dwelling house and stables, an orchard and barn. My grandfather Samuel Ard was the youngest of five children of Hugh Ard in Belfast. When Samuel was two years old his father and mother both died of fever, leaving the children to be cared for by relatives, Samuel coming to Magheradroll to live with his Uncle Roger, whose son and daughter both died early in life, so that the farm passed eventually to Samuel Ard. He married an Elizabeth Johnstone of Ballykine, Ballynahinch, they had a family of seven children, two dying in infancy. Samuel Ard was a farmer all his life and died in 1927 at the age of 85; his wife died in 1919. The farm then passed to his eldest son, also Samuel Ard, who is still alive and takes great care of the old home, although the house has long since been turned into barns. We noticed when making a copy of the will that the name is spelt Aird. This is the Scottish spelling. The family have always been known in Ireland as Ard.'
Schrier also noted that 'John Ard, and his sister Eliza Dornan, had emigrated to the United States in 1853. John had a small prosperous farm in Westfield, but Eliza was only making "a sort of a living" in New York City [see her letter of October 4, 1871]. Their brother Rodger's farm in Down was but 8 acres. The family was Church of Ireland.'
The series contains: drafts of Kerby A. Miller's typed transcripts of the letters; photocopies of the original letters; photocopies of Schrier's correspondence with the donor; census research; Schrier's and Miller's research notes; photocopied pages of secondary sources on Westfield and Chatauqua, New York; a copy of A History of Westfield: 1802-1977, by Dorothy Hopkins Curtis and Clara K. Trump, Westfield N.Y., 1979; a copy of First Presbyterian Church of Westfield, 1808-1968: A History, by Clara K. Trump, published by the First Presbyterian Church and Society of Westfield, New York, 1968; newspaper clippings; handwritten family trees and genealogies for the family; and Miller's correspondence with Ard family relatives, archivists, historians, and the Chatauqua County Historical Society.