Women’s History
The men who entered the Union military as substitutes from 1863 onwards are among the most neglected and maligned groups associated with the American Civil War. History–and many historians–have overwhelmingly focused on the negative aspects of their service, highlighting their...
As I have discussed frequently on this site and elsewhere, the Widows and Dependent Pension Files from the American Civil War represent the greatest repository of detailed social information on ordinary nineteenth century Irish people that exists anywhere in the...
In 1917 more than 6,000 American sailors arrived in Ireland, the first United States troops deployed to front line service during the First World War. From a social perspective, all was not plain sailing. This podcast tells the story of...
My primary area of research relates to wartime letters written home by soldiers and sailors, and which widow’s and dependents parted with in order to provide the Bureau of Pensions with evidence to support their claim. However, letters were not...
Popular perceptions of 19th century Irish emigration imagine a tearful farewell from home, as emigrants departed never to be heard from again. But in reality those who left usually maintained close ties with their home communities– ties of obligation and...
The Widow’s and Dependent pension files allow us reconstruct elements of the lives of working class 19th century families in unparalleled detail. In some cases, these individuals had never even set foot in the United States. Such is the case...
The new post shares another of the brief podcasts that was originally prepared for Irish Community Level Patrons. Here we hear the first-person affidavit of Donegal woman Mary Doherty, who emigrated from Carndonagh, Co. Donegal to Boston in the 1840s....
As we look forward to the tour of the 69th New York State Militia at Bull Run in May 2019 (details here), the first months of the year will have a number of posts that examine aspects of the 69th’s...
Mary Hogan emigrated from Co. Clare to America with her family around 1851. There she and her husband Michael–almost twenty years her senior–settled into life among the Irish community of Cincinnati, Ohio. Michael was among a number of Clare emigrants to...
The pension applications of widows and dependants for Civil War pensions pull back the curtains on the hardships that many 19th century working class Irish American women suffered at the hands of their husbands. For many, physical abuse, alcoholism and...