Series 3 - Julia Fields and Anne Flood letters

140pp

Copies of the letters were donated to Kerby A. Miller in 1978 by Pádraig Ó Droighnean, Ráistín [Clonmellon], County Westmeath; permission to publish was confirmed by his daughter, Mrs. Ann Sweeney, Drogheda, County Louth, in 1989-90.

This series is based on typescripts and photocopies of three letters written to County Meath from New York City: by Julia Fields, a governess, in 1844; and by Anne Flood, a domestic servant, in 1853. Unusually, Fields had emigrated separately from her husband, who remained in Ireland, due to the 'unjust' treatment she had received from his family.
Per Miller, 'The Fields and Flood letters illuminate:

1. The work, social lives, and attitudes of young, single Irish women in mid-19th-century New York City.
2. The processes of emigration: advice and encouragement to emigrate; chain migration and remittances.
3. Dangers for poor emigrants who arrive without money or friends before them.
4. Dangers for ""friendless"" emigrants arriving at New York City docks in the mid-19th century: chaos; loneliness; fever and quarantine.
5. Catholic priests: their role in communicating between emigrants and relatives in Ireland.
6. Emigration resulting from the dissolution of marriage in Ireland.
7. Emigrants' conflicts with relatives in Ireland who want them to return home.'
   The series also includes: Kerby A. Miller's research correspondence, primarily with the donor's family in Ireland; Miller's research notes, mostly from 19th-century Irish records; photocopied pages of old published works on mid-19th-century New York City; and information about the donor, Pádraig Ó Droighnean [Patrick Thornbury], formerly of the Belfast IRA in 1919-1923.