Series 5 - Persse family letters/Nellie Murphy Kiley letters

556pp

James Charles Roy provided the materials in this series to Kerby A. Miller.
The Persse letter transcripts were excerpted from Pethica, James L. and James C. Roy. (1998), 'To the Land of the Free from this Island of Slaves': Henry Stratford Persse's Letters from Galway to America, 1821-1832 (Cork: Cork University Press) and from Roy(1998). '""I Prefer a Free Country:"" Letters to and from County Galway Emigrants 1843-1856', Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society 56 (2004), pp. 85-153.. The original letter manuscripts are held by the Persse family.
Roy provided Miller with the transcripts and reproductions of the Nellie Murphy Kiley letters via post on 27-28 May 2005, having copied them from a friend in Haverhill, Massachusetts.

Materials provided to Kerby A. Miller by historian James Charles Roy pertaining to Galway customs official and distiller Henry Stratford Persse’s letters written to his sons in America between 1221 and 1832; letters written to and from County Galway emigrants to North America between 1841 and 1853, and letters written to County Cork emigrant Nellie Murphy Kiley in Haverhill, Massachusetts between 1896 and 1901.
The series includes:

• Softcover copy of Pethica, James L. and James C. Roy (1998), 'To the Land of the Free from this Island of Slaves': Henry Stratford Persse's Letters from Galway to America, 1821-1832 (Cork: Cork University Press), containing transcripts of 21 letters written by Persse plus extensive biographical information on the Persse family and early 19th century upper class life in Galway;
• Copy of Roy, James Charles (1998), '""I Prefer a Free Country:"" Letters to and from County Galway Emigrants 1843-1856', Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society 56 (2004), pp. 85-153, which contains transcripts of 11 more letters from the Persse Family Papers. Most of these letters pertain to the Doyle family of Canada West, many of whom served the Persse family at their seat at Moyode Castle, County Galway;
• Correspondence between Roy and Miller discussing the letters;
• Roy’s transcripts and reproductions of 55 letters written between 1896 and 1901 to Nellie Kiley (née) Murphy in Haverhill, Massachusetts and three further letters written between 1894 and 1935 pertaining to her relative Sister Mary Reginald (Maggie) Murphy, who later left Massachusetts to enter a convent in South Africa. The letters are written to Nellie from female members of the Cork Murphys and from Maggie/Sister Mary Reginald herself.