Annie Moore ~ Feb. 13th

So you want to know more about Annie Moore??

January 1, 1892, Annie Moore stepped off a ship at Ellis Island and into the history books. Early that cold winter morning she’d stood among several hundred immigrants aboard a ferry docked at Ellis Island. When the gangplank was lowered, she was the first to head down it. To her surprise she was greeted by a host of city, state, and federal officials who presented her with a certificate and a ten-dollar gold piece. All this occurred not because Annie Moore was the first off the ferry that day, but because she was the first immigrant to set foot on Ellis Island, the brand new federal immigration processing center.


Annie Moore arrived from County Cork, Ireland, aboard the steamship Nevada on January 1, 1892, this date was also her fifteenth birthday. Can you imagine, a new country, alone with your two brothers and only 15! Annie was accompanied by her brothers Phillip and Anthony.

Here is the ships manifest for Annie.


Annie Moore’s story was typical of many Irish immigrants. She was born in 1877 in Cork, the second child and only daughter of Matthew and Mary Moore. Seeking a brighter future for their family, her parents had decided to immigrate to America in 1888 and were living at 32 Monroe Street in NYC. Like many immigrants they didn’t know what to expect in America (or, quite likely, if they’d want to stay), so they left Annie and her two younger brothers in the care of an aunt. After years of hard work establishing themselves, they sent for their children. The three boarded the ship Nevada in Queenstown (Cobh) and spent 12 days at sea before arriving in New York harbor.

Annie married German immigrant Joseph Augustus Schayer, an employee at Manhattan's Fulton Fish Market, with whom she had at least eleven children. She died of heart failure in 1923 and is buried in Calvary Cemetery, Queens, N.Y. Her previously unmarked grave was identified in September 2006. On October 11, 2008, a dedication ceremony was held at Calvary which celebrated the unveiling of a marker for her grave, a Celtic Cross made of Irish Blue Limestone.


Moore is honored by bronze statues at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum and in Cobh, the Irish seaport town from which she sailed. If you ever get to Ireland make sure to see the museum in Cobh, it is very moving. It was also the last port of call for the Titanic, before her last voyage.

This is an image from Cobh.


Here are a Lyrics to one of my favorite songs! Written about Annie, I have enclosed both the lyrics and clip from YouTube. Enjoy!

Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears
Author: Brendan Graham
On the first day of January
Eighteen Ninety-two
They Opened Ellis Island
And they let the people through.
And the first to cross the threshold
Of the Isle of hope and tears
Was Annie Moore from Ireland
Who was all of fifteen years.

CHORUS
Isle of hope, Isle of tears,
Isle of freedom, Isle of fears,
But it's not the Isle
I left behind...
That Isle of hunger, Isle of pain,
Isle you'll never see again
But the Isle of home
Is always on your mind.

In her little bag she carried
All her past and history
And her dreams for the future
In the land of liberty.
And courage is the passport
When your old world disappears
’Cause there's no future in the past
When you're fifteen years.

CHORUS
When they closed down Ellis Island
In Nineteen Forty-three
Seventeen million people
Had come there for sanctuary.
And in springtime when I came here
And stepped onto its piers,
I thought of how it must have been
When you're only fifteen years.

CHORUS

But the Isle of Home
is always on your mind.

Ellis Island ~ Feb 12th

Since my last blog was on my husband and family immigrating to America, I thought I would follow up with a little piece about Ellis Island.


The first Ellis Island Immigration Station officially opened on January 1, 1892, three large ships waited in the harbor to dock. Over 700 immigrants passed through Ellis Island that day, and nearly 450,000 followed through the course of that first year.

The first passenger to set foot on Ellis Island was a 15-year-old from County Cork, Ireland named Annie Moore, she had travelled from Ireland with her younger brothers, and landed on Ellis Island January 1, 1892. She was greeted with much fanfare and was given a $10 gold coin. She then headed out into her new life in America.


In 1897 there was a fire on the island which destroyed almost every building. It also destroyed many records of those who immigrated earlier to America. The island was forced to shut down while an architect was chosen to come up with the plan for the new building. On Dec 17, 1900 the doors opened for the public once again. The new reception hall was better than ever. On one day it was recorded that "6,500 immigrants, entered, passed, and 'cleared' in nine hours." This was widely attributed to the building's amazing architectural likeness to train stations of the time, which were accustomed to dealing with thousands of people and tons of cargo in a single day.


Due to harsher and harsher legislation, immigration through Ellis Island began to decrease. Finally, in 1954, Ellis Island was shut down by the Immigration Services and transferred its activities back to Manhattan. Over over 12 million immigrant steamship passengers passed through Ellis.


For more than 20 years, Ellis Island was abandoned. Attempts to sell the property were made, but many bitterly opposed the idea claiming: "To sell the island would be cheap and tawdry." A study by the National Park Service was conducted during 1963—1964, outlining the reasons why the island should become a national monument, a reminder of part of our American heritage. The recommendation was accepted and President Lyndon Johnson officially pro-claimed Ellis Island part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument on May 11, 1965.


In 1982, President Ronald Reagan asked Lee Iacocca, chairman of the board of Chrysler Corporation of America, to help restore both the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

The Statue of Liberty--Ellis Island Foundation was formed to raise the $230 million needed for the restoration of these two important national monuments. In the largest restoration project of its kind in Ameri-can history, $170 million in individual and corporate donations were devoted to the Ellis Island main building project alone. To date, more than 20 million Americans have contributed to the restoration plans of the foundation.

Ellis Island was reopened and dedicated on September 10, 1990, as a unit of the U.S. Department of the Interior's National Park Service, administered by the super-intendent of the Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island.


OVER 40% of Americas population can trace their families heritage through Ellis Island. That is pretty amazing!


For a christmas gift a few years back my daughter had my husband's name engraved on the Wall of Honor on Ellis island. The American Immigrant Wall of Honor is a permanent exhibit of individual or family names featured at Ellis Island. It is the only place in the United States where an individual can honor his or her family heritage at a National Monument.

Immigration ~ Feb. 9th

In 1947 my husband was born in a DP Camp and just this week I realized it was the anniversary of his entry into this county 59 years ago! A DP (Displaced Persons) Camp was a term often used during WWII. It was a temporary “safe haven” for many Eastern Europeans that had been removed from their native countries during the war as prisoners, or slave laborers. The genocide of millions of Eastern Europeans during the war resulted in millions of people being uprooted from their original homes in the course of World War II, becoming displaced. Estimates for the number of displaced persons varies from 11 million to as many as 20 million, it is for me so hard to fathom those numbers! When the allied armies came in and freed these people, there were no homes to go to. Their countries, homes, and families had been decimated, so many found their only life in a DP Camp.

My in-laws met and married in a DP Camp, both were taken from their native homes in Poland, he had been 18, she 14. The conditions in these camps were harsh, with lack of sanitary conditions, minimal food, very little medical care, etc. My husband was born premature, most likely from the conditions, but survived. There was another woman who died giving birth and no baby formula for the infant, so my mother-in-law breast fed that baby also until it was taken from the camp.

Here is my mother-in-law ...

Here is my father-in-law ...
I can not even imagine what their lives were like nor the torture they went through during WWII. They never spoke about it. Never.

In January of 1950 they were sponsored to come to America. They came in a Naval Transport ship called the USS General Greely. My father-in-law was on the upper deck since he had volunteered to help. My mother-in-law and my husband were in steerage. You can imagine spending 18 days in the hull of the boat in winter seas!

Here are my husbands entry papers through Ellis Island.




My father-in-law had $6 dollars when he came to this country and worked very hard doing construction, eventually owning his own company. Sadly he died suddenly in 1984from a toxic poisoning. My mother-in-law at 86 is still going strong. She is a sweet-heart and cooks great polish food!! Love her Kopytka!

Here is a picture of the ship that my in-laws and husband came to America on.
February 1950, USAT General Greely left Bremerhaven, Germany, transporting Displaced Persons to the U.S.A. and arrived at Ellis Island; in 1950 she was returned to the US Navy for Military Sea Transportation Service and given the number T-AP 141.



Another Picture of the ship that brought them to America.


I have found the full ships manifest with their names listed, here is the heading.




Here is the song Emigrent Eyes ... It is a song about the people who passed through Ellis Island, very moving song. I think of my husband and his family and cry every time I hear it!!