THE REAL STORY OF ANNIE MOORE, ELLIS ISLAND’S FIRST IMMIGRANT

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https://untappedcities.com/2023/03/29/a ... 2e990a201b

Annie Moore statue at Ellis Island


New York
The Real Story of Annie Moore, Ellis Island’s First Immigrant
Annie Moore statue at Ellis Island
Nicole Saraniero Nicole Saraniero
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On New Year’s Day 1892, a seventeen-year-old girl named Annie Moore stepped onto Ellis Island and into a new life in America. The teen and her two younger brothers had just completed a 12-day journey across the Atlantic, spending Christmas at sea after departing from Queenstown, Ireland. They were meeting their parents who had arrived in America a few years earlier. As the very first person to pass through Ellis Island’s immigration station, Moore’s arrival was met with much fanfare and her name was cemented in the history books. However, the story of Moore’s life after her arrival has been shrouded in legend and misinformation.

You can learn more about immigration and health on Ellis Island by joining a hard hat tour of the island’s abandoned hospital complex, led by a Save Ellis Island docent!

Ellis Island Hard Hat Tour
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Before the immigration station at Ellis Island was constructed, new arrivals to America were processed at Castle Clinton. Between 1855 and 1890, more than 8 million people passed through America’s first federal immigration station at the southern tip of Manhattan.

Moore’s arrival at Ellis Island kicked off an opening year that would see 400,000 immigrants pass through the gates. On opening day, three steamships arrived at the island. Moore and her brothers came aboard the SS Nevada with over 140 other steerage passengers. The New York Times described how Moore and the other passengers were transferred from the large ship to a smaller transfer boat that was “gayly decorated with bunting and ranged alongside the wharf on Ellis Island amid a clang of bells and the din of shrieking whistles.”
Ellis Island from above

Once inside the massive building, Moore was escorted to a podium where her name was taken down as the very first in the registry book. When that business was complete, Colonel John B. Weber, the first Commissioner of Immigration, presented the “rosy-cheeked Irish girl” with a $10 gold coin which she told theTimes she would “never part with,” “and always keep as a pleasant memento of the occasion.” Moore and her brothers were then passed on to their parents who were waiting to receive them.

For decades, the true story of Moore’s life after she left Ellis Island has been obscured. The most prevalent narrative told of her life was that she moved to Texas, ran a hotel, and tragically died in a streetcar accident. However, after years of research, professional genealogist Megan Smolenyak uncovered the true story of Moore’s life. Like most immigrants who lived in New York, Moore lived on the Lower East Side and likely never left.
Ellis Island Main Hall

Smolenyak spent years trying to track down the real Annie Moore of Ellis Island after discovering that the Annie Moore of Texas was born in Illinois. She even offered a $1,000 reward on her blog to anyone who could help shed light on the New York Annie Moore’s story. Eventually, she joined forces with Brian G. Andersson, New York City’s former commissioner of records. Through vital records of Annie’s brothers, they were able to track down descendants, including Michael Shulman, a great-nephew of Moore’s,

Aided by Schulman’s family stories and with more extensive research, Smolenyak was able to piece together the facts of Annie’s life in New York. Turns out, Moore didn’t marry a descendant of famous Irish patriot Daniel O’Connell as previous claims had stated, but instead married a German baker’s son named Joseph Augustus Schayer. Schayer worked at the Fulton Fish Market. The couple had at least 10 children, though many didn’t survive into adulthood. They lived at multiple addresses throughout the Lower East Side.
Annie Moore statue at Ellis Island

Moore died of heart failure in 1924 and was buried in an unmarked family plot in Calvary Cemetery in Queens. Though she never returned to Ireland during her lifetime, her legacy lives on in both New York and her home country. In New York, there is a pub that bears her name in Midtown, as well as a National Park Service boat. A statue of Moore stands proudly inside the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration. Another statue of Moore, and her brothers, stands outside the Cobh Heritage Centre in County Cork, where she departed from long ago. Thanks to a campaign led by her descendants, Moore’s grave is now marked by a Celtic cross made of limestone imported from Ireland.

See the statue of Moore and learn more about immigration history on an upcoming hard hat tour of Ellis Island’s abandoned hospital complex! The tour, led by a Save Ellis Island docent, includes admission to the immigration museum.



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[MikeKozlowski]

...Amazing. And FWIW, only one of my family - my maternal grandmother, Maria Alleruzzo Carpentiere - came through Ellis. My Dad's people (the Kozlowskis and the Szelminskis) came in through Baltimore and Grandpa Carpentiere came the opposite way - Italy, down through the Suez Canal, and then across the IO and the Pacific to Vancouver then entering the US at Buffalo.

Mike

[Poohbah]

...Amazing. And FWIW, only one of my family - my maternal grandmother, Maria Alleruzzo Carpentiere - came through Ellis. My Dad's people (the Kozlowskis and the Szelminskis) came in through Baltimore and Grandpa Carpentiere came the opposite way - Italy, down through the Suez Canal, and then across the IO and the Pacific to Vancouver then entering the US at Buffalo.

Mike

My family mostly got here in the 1850s. A few branches of the family tree got pruned at the Wheatfield with the First Minnesota. Some more decided to bug out of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg when Big Otto von B started talking about blood and iron.

[Belushi TD]

My dad's parents came in through Ellis Island in 1928. Left Bocholt in Germany just in time to avoid the Nazis.

Belushi TD

[MikeKozlowski]

...Amazing. And FWIW, only one of my family - my maternal grandmother, Maria Alleruzzo Carpentiere - came through Ellis. My Dad's people (the Kozlowskis and the Szelminskis) came in through Baltimore and Grandpa Carpentiere came the opposite way - Italy, down through the Suez Canal, and then across the IO and the Pacific to Vancouver then entering the US at Buffalo.

Mike

My family mostly got here in the 1850s. A few branches of the family tree got pruned at the Wheatfield with the First Minnesota. Some more decided to bug out of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg when Big Otto von B started talking about blood and iron.

Poobah,

Found out not long before my Dad passed that some of our people bugged out as well - Pawel Szelminski was an NCO with His Most Serene Imperial Majesty Wilhelm the Second's bodyguard regiment when he asked to be released early from service to emigrate. He was told no....so he left anyways. And Giuseppe Carpentiere - my maternal grandfather - and his brother decided that they didn't feel like being fed into the meatgrinder that was the Italian front in WWI, so they split.

Mike

[Johnnie Lyle]

...Amazing. And FWIW, only one of my family - my maternal grandmother, Maria Alleruzzo Carpentiere - came through Ellis. My Dad's people (the Kozlowskis and the Szelminskis) came in through Baltimore and Grandpa Carpentiere came the opposite way - Italy, down through the Suez Canal, and then across the IO and the Pacific to Vancouver then entering the US at Buffalo.

Mike

My family mostly got here in the 1850s. A few branches of the family tree got pruned at the Wheatfield with the First Minnesota. Some more decided to bug out of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg when Big Otto von B started talking about blood and iron.

Poobah,

Found out not long before my Dad passed that some of our people bugged out as well - Pawel Szelminski was an NCO with His Most Serene Imperial Majesty Wilhelm the Second's bodyguard regiment when he asked to be released early from service to emigrate. He was told no....so he left anyways. And Giuseppe Carpentiere - my maternal grandfather - and his brother decided that they didn't feel like being fed into the meatgrinder that was the Italian front in WWI, so they split.

Mike

My grandfather’s ancestors decided 1866 was a good year to bug out of Bohemia, which proved wise.

[Poohbah]

80 percent of success in life is knowing when to show up. The rest is knowing when it's time to get the fuck out of there.

[Johnnie Lyle]

80 percent of success in life is knowing when to show up. The rest is knowing when it's time to get the fuck out of there.

See Petain, Philippe.