Past Voices: Letters Home - Alex & Annie Reid, Belfast Ireland 23 May 1865. Find your ancestors and learn their history.

Reid Collection

"We left New York on 8th October last and had a frightfully bad passage. We expected that we were all going to be lost.." Alex & Annie Reid, Belfast Ireland 23 May 1865

[Letter written by parents, Alex and Annie Reid, in Belfast to daughter, Annie. Annie had recently moved to America and her husband was a Civil War soldier]

BELFAST. 23rd May, 1865

Dear Annie:

Your letter of 8th instant duly came to hand. We are very sorry to hear that Fred was obliged to go away, and we sincerely hope that he may have returned home before you receive this letter, as they have now given over fighting it is very likely that they may send the soldiers home again. We are very much pleased to hear that baby is getting on so well. We never received any letter from you except one which came from Glasgow from Brother Vincent so they must have miscarried but now that we know your address we shall write often now. We send you by this post some newspapers to amuse you, and shall be glad to receive any of your papers to hear how the country is getting on. We have not the least doubt that you are very lonely and indeed we are lonely enough ourselves. Sarah has just left us a few days ago and gone to London and we are left quite alone. Henry is still in Glasgow but we expect that he is going to removed to London this summer. The weather is very hot here for now.

We left New York on 8th October last and had a frightfully bad passage. We expected that we were all going to be lost. We were fifteen days on the water and arrived home more dead than alive. Henry went back to Mr. Nagills the second day after he returned, and is still there and doing very well - Father is quite well and is not yet tired of talking of America, he tells us every day that he will go back again but we think he has got quite enough of it.

We would like if you think of coming home Fred could get plenty of work here and could do just as well here as any place else, but perhaps you prefer remaining in the States and indeed perhaps it is the best place as wages are not so good here for labouring people as in America. What kind of winter have you had and is the summer very hot? Mother will enclose you a note in this letter and make haste in answering it and we shall write again as soon as we hear from you if you have received this. Father is deeply immersed in business again and Henry also is very busy so mother is alone in the house all day. We have a very fine house now. It is just above the Lying-in-House on the Antrim Road. We have a large kitchen, scullery and yard below and a drawing room and two bedrooms up stairs. There is both gas and water in the house and we have it splendidly furnished and are very comfortable in it and it is in a very healthy part of the town. Mother has had very good health since we came to it. Write and let us know how you like your new house and if you like it as well as the place which you have left.

With kind regards believe us to remain
Your affectionate parents

Alex and Annie Reid

Your affectionate brother,
Henry A. Reid

GENUKI All English Genealogy site

AllEnglishRecords.com United Kingdom Census Records, Church Records, Cemetery Records, Parish Records

Submitted by Kathi Reid: Henry Reid was born in Belfast, Ireland in 1841, educated at the University of Lille, France and worked in Belfast as a manager of a linen establishment. He traveled through Mexico, South America, and the West Indies in the course of his job. He came to New Orleans to live about 1866 and eventually moved to Wilkes-Barre, Pa where he became a well-known educator and school board member. Please visit Kathi's pages on the Reid family

Search for ancestors on Ancestry.com United Kingdom, England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland Databases

Try the 14 Day FREE trial on Ancestry.co.uk for your English, Irish, Scottish or Welsh ancestor research