Milltown Emigrant Letter Collection

This Letter Collection is comprised of three sets. The first set comes from the Welch (Walsh) family from Clashaganny which includes 4 letters written pre-Famine and 1 afterwards (1849). The second set comes from the McHugh family of Drim and is a collection of over 100 letters sent between 1878 and 1994.  These give an account of the McHugh family as they travelled to the United States and Australia and the successes and trials of the extended family during that period. These letters involving people from our parish give us a window on how our forefathers lived and died in the 19th and 20th centuries. Both the McHugh and Welch families very generously offered these for publication on our heritage community website.

This project was launched in Milltown Community Centre during National Heritage Week 2022 where people got to browse through the original letters and listened to podcasts which the heritage group made. This project is supported by the Heritage Council and Galway County Council.

Following the above launch, we were delighted to discover that local man Liam Delaney had letters and picture postcards written by his uncles and their wives to family members in Milltown. To celebrate St Patrick’s Day, we launched this collection of family letters sent from America home to Pollaturick, Milltown in the early part of the 20^th century. As of the 17th March 2023, the originals and transcripts were published. Special thanks to the Delaney family for sharing these with us.