Series 7 - Maurice & Batt Wolfe (Woulfe) letter abstracts and excerpts

67pp

The original copies of the Wolfe/Woulfe letters were provided to Kerby A. Miller by Kevin Danaher (Caoimhín Ó Danachair), lecturer in the Department of Irish Folklore, University College Dublin, per Danaher's letter of 26 July 1988. Danaher had received the letters in the 1950s from Timothy Woulfe of County Limerick. Two sets of the letters were created by Miller: one set for his own collection and one set on microfiche for the National Library of Ireland [n.4216, p.3887], after which the original letters were returned by Miller to Danaher (d. 2002). The locations of the originals is now unknown.

Abstracts and transcribed excerpts of a set of 71 letters written by Maurice H. Wolfe/Woulfe, a native of Cratloe, Limerick who emigrated to the United States circa 1863 and enlisted in the Union Army during the American Civil War, and Maurice’s brother Bartholomew (‘Batt), who emigrated in 1869 and worked in various location across the northeast United States (primarily around Vermont and western New York). Maurice remained in Washington following the war, raised a family, and worked in several federal government agencies until his death circa 1911-1913. Batt worked a number of labour jobs, took part in the 1870 Fenian raid on Canada, spent time in the United States Navy during the 1870s, and eventually went to Canada to work in a railroad yard in 1879; he was last heard from in 1881 after having married.
Per Kerby A. Miller, ‘All the authors of these letters use the spellings, Wolfe and Woulfe, interchangeably -- both for their own names and for those of their relatives. Thus, when tracing family relationships or addresses, no importance can be placed on the spellings of the last names.’

The reference copies of these letters, including full reproductions and transcripts, plus extensive research on the brothers and a 1912 letter from a Woulfe cousin, J. W Heffernan, to Patrick Woulfe (Maurice’s son?), are located in P155/45/1.