Irish immigration primary sources

Immigration letter
Irish immigrant letters home
Letters from italian immigrants

•

The Dutch Immigrant Letter Collection includes a wide spectrum of Dutch immigrant experience-Protestant, Catholic, and secular-and it is the only major collection of its kind. To assemble the Immigrant Letter Collection the archives conducted four major manuscript collection campaigns in the Netherlands and the United States between 1976 and 1990. These efforts accumulated at least eight thousand items-letters, travel accounts, immigrant memoirs, and photographs.

Of the 4,970 letters gathered (1838-1958), 2,793 were American postings and 2,179 were from the Netherlands to the United States. Half of the letters from immigrants cluster between 1873 and 1893, accurately reflecting the numerical configuration of Dutch immigration. Moreover, immigration peaks in 1848-1857, 1867-1888, and 1892-1915 are followed a year or two later by peaks in correspondence.

Unfortunately we acquired no useful examples of two-way correspondence. Furthermore, the immigrant letters represent at best 0.0032 percent of an estimated 889,000 letters mailed from the United States to Holland between 1890 an

•

Emigrants Letters

Emigration to America

Although the number of Welsh people who emigrated to America and Australia in the nineteenth century was far lower than from less industrialised countries, such as Ireland, a significant number did leave Wales in the hope of a better life. It is estimated that about 60,000 people emigrated from Wales to the USA during the period 1850-70.

A number of factors have been suggested for emigration from Wales during the middle years of the nineteenth century. Many of the Welsh tenant farmers and farm labourers were living in poverty. Also, the unstable market in coal and steel meant that employment for many steelworkers and miners was unreliable.

When radical figures, such as Samuel Roberts ('SR'; 1800-85) and Michael D. Jones (1822-98) spoke in favour of emigration, many were ready to listen. It was often seen as an opportunity to own land at a time when most land in Wales was owned by the gentry, while others headed for the mines and quarries of the industrial areas.

Many of these emigrants to America made their way to the existing Welsh c

•

Migrant Letters

The immigrant experience is as old as America itself. The Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West recently held a symposium called “Migrant Letters,” devoted to correspondence from 20th-century Chinese and Mexican immigrants to California. Changing immigration laws, job opportunities, acclimation to a new culture — their experiences echo today’s issues. These letters have been edited for clarity and condensed.

FROM DR. GEORGE CHAN, PORTLAND, ORE., TO ATTORNEY Y.C. HONG, LOS ANGELES, 1930

Dear Mr. Hong:

I am writing for Mr. Chow Yick again. I didn’t quite understand him in the first place. That he is not a American Citizen himself, but his father is. So he is a native born son. Before he even enter in U.S.A. his wife is in the family way & a child was borned 3 months after he was in this country. Will his boy [be] entitled to admission to this country? Kindly let me hear from you again and oblige.

Yours truly
Dr. Geo. Chan

FROM FRED CHANG, OVERSEAS, TO ATTORNEY Y.C. HONG, LOS ANGELES, 1934

My Dear Mr. Hong,

Gee Mr. Hong, I’m very