19th century Ireland
19th-century Irish politics
Act of Union political history
Atlantic world migration
Boston College archives
Boston immigrant experience
Boston Irish community
Category=DND
Category=NHD
Category=NHK
County Kerry genealogy
Daniel O'Connell historical influence
emigration to Massachusetts
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
famine communications
famine documentary evidence
famine migration narratives
famine relief efforts
famine-era agricultural reports
famine-era community resilience
famine-era correspondence
famine-era personal testimonies
genealogical case study Ireland
Great Hunger studies
handwritten family documents
historical family archives
historical family migration patterns
historical Irish weather and farming
historical letter collections
Ireland social transformation
Irish Catholic family history
Irish cultural memory
Irish diaspora research
Irish famine scholarship
Irish heritage research tools
Irish historical context essays
Irish history education resources
Irish immigration history
Irish letter transcription projects
Irish local economy 1840s
Irish manuscript preservation
Irish peasant life 1840s
Irish rural sociology
Irish studies resources
Irish-American correspondence
Irish-American heritage
Irish-American identity formation
John J. Burns Library manuscripts
Milltown Kerry historical records
primary sources on Irish famine
Repeal movement context
rural life in County Kerry
social history of Ireland
transatlantic family letters
Product details
- ISBN 9781625349583
- Dimensions: 156 x 222mm
- Publication Date: 30 Jan 2026
- Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
The Prendergast Letters Collection, one of the noteworthy manuscript collections at Boston College's John J. Burns Library, provides an account of the experiences of an ordinary family in County Kerry, Ireland, from 1840 to 1850. The letters include myriad details of the lives of family members and neighbors, reports of weather, agriculture, and local events and economy, along with commentary on matters of national importance such as politician Daniel O'Connell's movement for the Repeal of the Act of Union.
Most important, the letters offer a rare contemporary, firsthand account of Ireland's an Gorta Mor, the Great Famine that began with the failure of the potato crop in 1845. Letters written in the months and years following the announcement of the first crop failure provide insight into not only the sufferings of one family but also the response of the community and nation as this crisis transformed Ireland.
James and Elizabeth Prendergast were the parents of six children. Their letters from Milltown, County Kerry, dictated to a scrivener, were posted to sons Thomas and Jeffrey and daughter Julia Riordan and her husband Cornelius, all of whom had emigrated in search of employment to Boston, Massachusetts—a city that would itself be transformed by the famine-era influx of Irish immigrants.
In addition to transcriptions of the forty-eight letters in the collection, this volume includes contextual essays by historian Ruth-Ann Harris and genealogist Marie Daly. The evidence of the letters themselves, along with the contributions of Harris and Daly, demonstrate the ways in which the family of James Prendergast was at once exceptional and typical.
Most important, the letters offer a rare contemporary, firsthand account of Ireland's an Gorta Mor, the Great Famine that began with the failure of the potato crop in 1845. Letters written in the months and years following the announcement of the first crop failure provide insight into not only the sufferings of one family but also the response of the community and nation as this crisis transformed Ireland.
James and Elizabeth Prendergast were the parents of six children. Their letters from Milltown, County Kerry, dictated to a scrivener, were posted to sons Thomas and Jeffrey and daughter Julia Riordan and her husband Cornelius, all of whom had emigrated in search of employment to Boston, Massachusetts—a city that would itself be transformed by the famine-era influx of Irish immigrants.
In addition to transcriptions of the forty-eight letters in the collection, this volume includes contextual essays by historian Ruth-Ann Harris and genealogist Marie Daly. The evidence of the letters themselves, along with the contributions of Harris and Daly, demonstrate the ways in which the family of James Prendergast was at once exceptional and typical.
Shelley Barber is archivist, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.
Ruth-Ann M. Harris is adjunct professor of Irish studies, Boston College.
Marie E. Daly is director of research library, New England Historic Genealogical Society.
