Series 12 - Mary Malone letter

134pp

Per Dr. Arnold Schrier, collaraborator of Kerby A. Miller who provided him with the letter: 'This letter got to me in a rather roundabout way. The original was in the possession of a Mrs. Stone, Shore Street, Cushendall, Co. Antrim. She gave it to Michael J. Murphy, Farusklin, Glenariffe, Co. Antrim, a collector employed by the Irish Folklore Commission. Murphy sent it to Sean O'Sullivan at the [Irish Folklore Commission] in Dublin, who in turn made it available to me to photostat. The original may still be with the I.F.C. Neither Mrs. Stone nor Mr. Murphy provided any background information about the letter.'

Materials pertaining to a letter collected by Dr. Arnold Schrier in 1955 written by Mary Malone in January 1877 from upstate New York to her brother in County Waterford. In the letter, Malone mentions that she left her first place of employment after working there 2 1/2 years (so presumably emigrated in mid-1874), was now living with her aunt, and was working as a house or farm servant for only $1 per week. In addition to Kerby A. Miller’s transcript and Schrier’s reproduction of the letter, the series consists of research gathered on Malone by both Schrier and Miller, including the revelation that her family remained in the Rochester area, that her nephew was ordained as a priest, and that a relative was married to the founder of Xerox and became a major philanthropist in the region.