OK, I said I was done with Irish-related posts here on the Buzzyblog. However, I forgot that I had this Twofer Tuesday item that I wanted to pass along. To quote someone on this matter, I didn’t lie to you, the truth merely changed.
Annie Moore has the honor of being the first immigrant to pass thru Ellis Island when it opened for business in 1892. Her parents had come to America a couple years previously and then arranged for Annie and her two brothers to join them.
While in Ireland, Pam and I visited the Cobh Heritage Museum which does an excellent job telling the history and story of Irish emigration. Cobh was also the disembarkation port for the Titanic and the Lusitania and features several exhibits on those ships and their eventual demises.
As for the numbers of Irish folks who emigrated back then, here is a stat for you: between the years 1845 and 1855 over 2.1 million people left Ireland. This, coupled with the estimated 1 million famine-related deaths that had also happened during that period, meant that Ireland’s total 1841 population of approximately 8 million, was nearly halved in a 15 year interval due to the famine and emigration.
Admission to the Cobh Museum, consisted of a boarding ticket (above) bearing the name of an actual emigrant who went through there en route to America. Your task, as you strolled thru the museum, was to find that person mentioned somewhere in the museum.
My ticket bore the name of someone whom I learned ultimately did not make it to the New Land and along with approximately 30% of his co-travelers died aborad ship during the trip. So many folks died on these trips, that the transport ships were nicknamed Coffin Ships because anywhere from 20 to 50% of the passengers would not survive the journey.
Pam’s namesake on her admission ticket (shown above) was Annie Moore. Pam was determined to find her and diligently checked throughout the museum looking for any reference to Annie.
Ultimately, Pam gave up looking for Annie as we completed the tour and were about to exit for the Cafe and gift shop. It was there, at the end of the tour, that we encountered the very last exhibit made to resemble a New York City street scene. It was dedicated to and told the the Story of Annie Moore.
Despite her famous entry into America, the rest of Annie’s life in the U.S. was a semi-sad story of poverty and struggle. Annie married and had 11 children several of whom died from childhood diseases. Annie passed at the young age of 50.
As for the twofer business, somewhere along the line after Annie’s death the newspapers latched onto a bogus story that Annie eventually had left NY City, migrated West, became a hotelier and died when hit by a street car (click here.) Obviously, that is a more exciting story than was Annie-married-had-kids-and-died-young. I also got to wonder if the family of the not-so-real Annie didn’t play along with the fake news first immigrant story because it made for a good claim to fame even if their Annie had been born in Illinois.)
For an excellent video on the Cobh Museum and Annie’s story (click here.)
This video below contains a tune about Annie along with an interesting explanation as to how she and her brothers came to be the first off the boat at Ellis Island that day in 1892: