Series 3 - Patrick I. Monks letters

3 sub-series

The National Library of Ireland donated reproductions of the Patrick I. Monks letters to Kerby A. Miller via post of 2 January 1986, from which Kerby A. Miller created his transcripts. The original manuscripts are held in the Joseph Halloway Papers, National Library of Ireland [call number MS 22406].

Materials pertaining to the Patrick I. Monks letters, a set of 28 letters and four postcards sent by Monks to Joseph ‘Joe’ Halloway of Ballsbridge, Dublin between 1887 and 1931. Patrick Ignatius Monks (1857-1935) emigrated to Queensland circa 1885, twice returning temporarily to Dublin. In 1909, Monks relocated to Birmingham, Alabama where he practiced. Marrying his wife Nell on a 1915 visit to Dublin, Monks retired in 1920. By 1921, he was in California, where he spent his retirement living first in San Francisco and then in various Los Angeles County locations. While in the United States, Monks changed his first name from Patrick to Frederick, but still wrote his letters to Halloway as 'Patrick' or 'Pat'. Per Kerby A. Miller, 'evidently his real name (and the one he used in Ireland) was Patrick, but apparently in America he ""Americanized"" his first name to Frederick in order to hide the fact of his Irish background and Catholic religion. Most of Monks's life he practiced law as an attorney in Alabama, and perhaps anti-Irish or anti-Catholic prejudice was so strong there that he felt the need to disguise his origins.'
The series is arranged into three sub-series: biographical notes and letter transcripts; research; and letter reproductions.