Hughes, Bridget
Biographical Note
Bridget Hughes was the daughter of Mary McConville and Daniel Hughes. The Hughes and McConvilles were Catholic farming families living in Creenkill, a town one and a half miles from the former village of Crossmaglen in County Armagh of Northern Ireland. At the brink of the Great Famine in 1846, Bridget emigrated with her aunt, Ellen McConville, from Ireland to America. They landed initially in Boston but eventually settled near Ellen's sister, Alice McConville Crowley, who had immigrated a year earlier, in the town of Hingham, Massachusetts. The McConville and Hughes men joined them around 1848 or 1849. However, they were displeased by Hingham's level of industrialization. As a result, most family members migrated to the American mid-west (the Hugheses to southern Wisconsin and the McConvilles to Illinois) in search of farmland and a more familiar agricultural life.
Found in 1 Collection or Record:
Letters to Bridget Hughes
This collection contains letters to Bridget Hughes, a mid-nineteenth century immigrant to America from Ireland, from her Hughes and McConville family in Ireland. The letters discuss both family news and general events, but are particularly noteworthy for their documentation of the economic and social impact of the Irish Famine.
Collection is open for research; digital version also available.