| Title: | McIlrath, Eliza Jane (Jennie) to Mc Ilrath family, 1897 |
|---|---|
| ID | 4527 |
| Collection | The McIlrath Letters: A family history in letters from New Zealand to Ireland (1860-1915) [Bassett, McKee et al.] |
| File | mcilrath/46 |
| Year | 1897 |
| Sender | McIlrath, Eliza Jane (Jennie) |
| Sender Gender | female |
| Sender Occupation | unknown |
| Sender Religion | unknown |
| Origin | Springfield, New Zealand |
| Destination | Killinchy, Co. Down, Northern Ireland |
| Recipient | Mc Ilrath family |
| Recipient Gender | male-female |
| Relationship | cousins - niece |
| Source | |
| Archive | |
| Doc. No. | |
| Date | |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | |
| Log | unknown |
| Word Count | 531 |
| Genre | decease, photographs, illness, family, weather |
| Note | |
| Transcript | Springfield August 17th 1897 Dear Uncle, Auntie & all my Cousins, The paper which we received on Saturday 14th inst. brought us the sad news of my dear cousin Annies death. I am sure it must have been a great blow for you all. You will have our deepest sympathy in your great trouble. I had a letter from Tilly (Lakeside) saying she had got a letter from home, & that by it she saw that Cousin John had the gastric fever. We all hope he is quite better now. She also received Dear Annie's & John's photos for which I have been expecting this long time. I would so much like to have their photos. I must ask Sarah to excuse me for being so long in answering her letter. The fact of it is I have been waiting to have my photo taken before I would write. I got them taken over a month ago. They were so long in doing them up. I only got them last Saturday. The same day as I got your paper. The photos are just the very image of me. I must also thank Sarah for the very pretty card she sent me. Mamma has been very ill. She took bad on March 28th & is not quite better yet. For two months she was very bad. The Dr. was attending her for a long time & then she went down to a Dr. in ChristChurch but neither seemed to do her much good. She is suffering from acute indigestion. She cannot touch meat of any kind, potatoes, pudding or anything fatty. The only thing that agrees with her are brown bread, coffee & milk & lime water mixed. We are all suffering from very bad influenza colds now. We had a lovely dry winter rather too dry, in fact the crops were beginning to rot in the ground. From the beginning of June to August no rain at all fell, but since then we have had nice heavy rain which has done a vast amount of good. We have got 65 acres of wheat in now & sixty acres ready for oats. We are also going to put in about 30 more acres in oats. Last years our crops turned out well. I spent my Xmas down at Uncle James 8c cousin Jim spent his up at our place. Cousin Agnes was up for a fortnight in May & Lilly is coming up to spend her 21st Birthday with us in Sept. She is going to bring Annie McIlrath a daughter of Mr. Robert McIlrath up with her. I am sending a photo to Mrs Russell as I do not know her address I will send it with yours & you can give it to her. You must also give her our kind love & tell her that I will expect her own photo also her husbands & childrens. I hope that when this letter reaches you your troubles will have greatly abated, please excuse such a short letter this time, but I will try & write a longer one for next mail, I am Your affect., neice & cousin Jennie McIlrath. |
