Towards the end of the 19th century, contact was made between the Carrolls in Ohio and their cousins in the city of Cork. In 1878 Laura (née Carroll) Taylor visited Europe and travelled through Ireland, visiting Joseph Hatton Carroll in his office. Laura wrote to her brother Robert William Carroll in Cincinnati about the visit and she no doubt gave Joseph her brother’s address, for the first letter Robert writes is a reply to a letter written by Joseph Hatton Carroll. The reply also mentions a visit by his brother-in-law, Courtney Piatt, his second wife’s younger brother.
I have not found copies of the letters which Laura wrote about her visit, nor the letters which Robert received from Cork. More recently I uncovered some letters from Robert to another relative, Thomas Greer MP which were held at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.
In July 1884, other relatives of Robert, John Carroll Whinnery and his adult daughter Abbie Whinnery visited Europe and returned to the US from Cork. They took the opportunity to visit the Carroll business address and met one of J.H.Carroll’s sons. Abbie wrote a long letter to Robert describing the Whinnery’s visit to the old family homestead in co. Antrim. Robert sent Joseph Hatton Carroll a copy of the letter which he transcribed into a blue notebook. A copy of the letter was published in the Belfast Evening Telegraph in July 1912 when Laura Taylor’s son Frank Taylor decided that he was going to retrace Abbie’s footsteps 28 years to the day.