The Tree of Me

Three years ago I posted that I was going to contribute one of the family letters to Letters of 1916. This digital collection includes letters held at institutions in Ireland and abroad alongside those in private collections. There are hundreds of letters connecting thousands of lives commenting a myriad of topics including the Easter Rising, literature and art, the Great War, politics, business, and ordinary life. Letters of 1916 adds a new perspective to the events of the period, a confidential and intimate glimpse into early 20th Century life in Ireland ,  as well as how Ireland was viewed abroad. Letters of 1916 The letter I contributed was written by Maude Dawson (Kilronan, Swords, Ireland) to her cousin Louisa Spinks in Victoria on 9th June 1916. I went back to the website today to check that the letter was on the public site and there it was. Letter from Maude Dawson to her cousin Louisa Spinks, 9 June 1916 My only disappointment is that it says the letter belongs...

A couple of days ago I came across the Letters of 1916 website. I was quite excited when I read about this project. The Letters of 1916 project is the first public humanities project in Ireland. Join the hundreds of people who are helping us create a crowd-sourced digital collection of letters written around the time of the Easter Rising (1 November 1915 – 31 October 1916) by contributing copies of letters to the database or transcribing previously uploaded letters. In my collection of letters written from Ireland by my Dawson family I have two letters that fit the timeframe. The first written in November 1915 from Eleanor Dawson to her niece Louisa Spinks who lived in Whittlesea north of Melbourne. The second, was written in June 1916 by Eleanor's daughter Maude to her cousin Louisa. Today I added the first of these letters to the website. My only disappointment so far is that I can't seem to be able to transcribe my own contribution. Hopefully it will be available for ...