About the Project
PRONI holds a fascinating collection of emigrant letters (1800-1900s). These letters document what it was like to move from Northern Ireland to places such as North America and Australia and cover over a century of migration history.
In partnership with the Mellon Centre for Migration Studies, Leaving. Crossing. Arriving. brings locals and migrants together to explore and share stories of migration within, in and out of Northern Ireland over the years.
The project gives volunteers access to a selection of emigrant letters and a behind-the-scenes view of PRONI's migration and BAME archives. Volunteers are also taking part in a visit the Mellon Centre and the Bad Bridget exhibition at the Ulster American Folk Park, a podcasting workshop with Poca Productions and a letter-writing workshop with Shelley Tracey.
At the end of the project, the volunteers will create podcasts about an emigrant letter of choice and write a letter documenting their own experience of migration for PRONI’s archives.
They will also take part in a volunteering project that will help PRONI make records related to migration history, such as diaries, journals, sketches, and photographs, more digitally accessible to the public.
Podcasts
Our volunteers talk about their selection of emigration letters from PRONI's archives and bring forward some fascinating stories.
This content is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Emigrant Letters
Read a selection of emigrant letters that were selected by the volunteers for the podcasts.
This transcription is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.*
*Scanned letters are not covered by the Creative Commons license.
Volunteers
Robert Peacocke
Rosemary Henderson
Rhonda Dempsie
Robert Guthrie
Hester McCunn
Margaret Masaba
Rajiv Prasad
Ana Morery Stewart
Doro Fassunge
Fiona Pegrum
Ritu Shirvastava
Carol Curran
Canan Kurt
Kanika Goyal