A Little More on Moore
I'm delighted to see that the word is spreading about the Annie Moore mystery/contest. The more sleuths out there, the better the odds that we can find the truth. I've been responding to some comments folks have made, but wasn't able to pop an image into the comments, so decided to post here again.
Joe Beine kindly transcribed a New York Times article that will be of interest, so I thought I'd share this segment (above) of an article from The World (2 January 1892) as well. Let's get the clues circulating!Diane Rigden commented about searching for the "32 Monroe" address in the 1890 city directory and not finding anyone named Moore. I searched a few city directories for New York City for the 1890-1895 period, and failed to find any Matt Moore on Monroe St. as well. But here's an excerpt from a directory for 1891-1892 showing a few fellows with the name of Matthew Moore:
Also, it's worth mentioning that there was a Monroe St. in both Manhattan and Brooklyn.
So it's up to you to decide whether any of these is the right Matt -- or for that matter, whether Annie's father was truly named Matt (have any of you found the conflicting clues over the names of her brothers yet?). This is a real life case, so it includes all the usual real life uncertainty that we deal with in researching our own families!
Feel free to post more comments, questions or clues here. I'll do my best to respond and invite others to do so as well.
posted by Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak @ 5:14 PM
Subscribe to Megan's Roots World Blog
5 Comments:
Megan,
One of us missed the clue that the father's name was Matt or Matthew.
I did search a bit today (I use Ancestry at the FHC) for the brothers in 1900, with no positive results. Now I see a clue about the names of the brothers.
I also determined that there were something like 200 Ann* born in Ireland in 1877+/- 1 year in the 1900 census, so I didn't bother checking all of them. I can't effectively search the 1910 census because of the Temp files problem - they won't let me delete them at the FHC.
Oh well -- I tried, and will keep watching for more clues.
Cheers -- Randy
Randy and other sleuths,
The names of Annie's younger brothers - Anthony and Phillip - are on the passenger list. See my blog post...
Annie Moore - Ellis Island's First Immigrant
But Megan mentions "conflicting clues over the names of her brothers." What a great mystery we have here! :)
Regards,
Joe
OK, I suspect it's a bit of a red herring, but one of the articles (and only one as far as I know) from the time of Annie's arrival cites brothers named Tom and Joe.
Also, I don't recall at the moment where I saw this, but I know something I read along the way suggested that an older brother named Thomas had emigrated earlier with the parents. I'm inclined to believe Anthony and Phillip (because they're comparatively unusual names for Irish arrivals, so not ones that would be scribbled down if uncertain), with a possible Tom/Thomas in the mix. But that's just my "take" based on what I've tripped across to date.
Megan,
What fun! Instead of doing all of the work I had planned today, I've been searching for clues!
There's an Anna Moore, a servant in NYC who emigrated in 1892. Birth is listed as 1874, but I always use plus or minus 5 years when searching Irish.
The newspaper article states they were from Cork City (which could have been just a departure point) so I thought I'd go back and see if there were any Matthew Moore's in Griffiths. Although this probably pre-dates Annie's father, naming patterns in Ireland would suggest that there would be individuals by this name in the area. There were 46 Matthew Moores listed in various counties...3 in Cork (but not Cork City). I also checked Anthony (5 but none in Cork) and Phillip (4 in Cork). The birth of Annie and her siblings, as well as the marriage of her parents would most likely be in Irish Civil Registration as it began in 1864 (oh, to have the indexes online) which might help verify the siblings names. I found no likley candidates for Phillip or Anthony in the Census records or WWI Draft registration, so perhaps they used different names (not an unlikely possibility).
I really have to get back to work now, so I'll keep checking for other clues.
Regards...
Donna
Hi Donna,
Who doesn't love a history mystery, eh? And yes, I agree, Irish Civil Registration records would be a great place to look. Anyone out there researching them?
Take care,
Megan
P.S. Sorry to distract you from work!
Post a Comment
<< Home