Saturday, July 29, 2006

Searching for Annie Moore - #2

I accessed the Ancestry databases and census records yesterday at the FHC in the search for Annie Moore (see Megan Smolenyak's blog for the latest details). I have also posted twice before, Joe Beine has posted some info, and Sharon Elliott has searched and organized a lot of data. All the above are linked on Megan's page linked above.

I've summarized my searches in Ancestry below in the interests of brevity (which I rarely have a lot of):

1) The World War I draft registration cards were searched for Philip Moore (b. ca 1884) and Anthony Moore (b. ca 1880), the younger brothers of Annie Moore. The thought was that perhaps one or both would live near their parents and their sister. There were three Philip's with an 1884 +/- 1 birth year in the NYC boroughs, but none were born in Ireland. There were several others outside of NYC who are possibles, especially Rev. Philip Moore of Pittsburgh PA. The link was wrong on the Philip James Moore of Manhattan. The search for Anthony yielded fwer possibles, and most of them were black, and none claimed to be born in Ireland.

2) The 1900 US Census -- The following searches were made assuming that the Moore family may have included Matt(hew), Mary, Annie, Anthony and/or Philip, or some of them. I also assumed (perhaps wrongly, that Matt and Mary were born in the 1850 to 1860 time period, which is logical considering they had a child supposedly born in 1877).

a) M. Moore (born Ireland) - only 1 hit, he in CA. Doesn't fit.
b) Mat* Moore (born Ireland) - 7 hits, but none with other family names.
c) Mary Moore (born Ireland) - 104 hits, viewed them all, none with other family names.
d) Phi* Moore (born 1884 +/- 2) - 29 hits, viewed all, none fits
e) Ant* Moore (born 1880 +/- 2) - 15 hits, viewed all, none fits
f) Ann* (born Ireland 1877 +/- 1) - 283 hits in US, 82 in NY, 17 in NJ); I did not view them, but should view them all looking for a January birth month and an 1892 immigration date.

3) 1910 US census searches:

a) M. Moore (+/- 10, born Ireland) - no hits
b) Mat* Moore (+/- 10, born Ireland) - no hits
c) Mary Moore (1850 +/- 10, born Ireland) - 142 hits, one possible living with an Annie (see below)
d) Ann* (born Ireland 1877 +/- 2) - didn't bother...
e) Phil* Moore (1884 +/- 2) - 23 hits, only 1 born Ireland, the Pittsburgh priest
f) Ant* Moore (1880 +/- 2) - 19 hits, 0 born Ireland
g) Moore (born Ireland, 1855 +/- 5) - 177 in NY - viewed most of them

One family in the 1910 census in Manhattan has Mary Moore as a mother-in-law and an Annie as a wife. Their data (T624, Roll 1004, p1B, ED 9, Manhattan Ward 1, NY, NY, Water St):

* Patrick Morrissey (head, age 39, married 14 years, born Ireland, parents born Ire/Ire, imm. 1885, janitor)
* Annie Morrissey (wife, age 37, married 14 years, 8 births, 4 living, born Ire, parents born Ire/Ire, imm. 1886)
* Mary F. Morrissey (dau, age 13, NY, Ire/Ire)
* Elizabeth Morrissey (dau, age 7, NY, Ire/Ire)
* Helen Morrissey (dau, age 6, NY, Ire/Ire)
* Catherine Morrissey (dau, age ?/12, NY, Ire/Ire)
* Mary Moore (mother-in-law, age 72?, widow, 2 born, 2 living, born Ire, parents born Ire/Ire, no imm. date)

The age and immigration date of Annie, and the number of kids born to Mary, don't match here to the assumed known data. The marriage date does match that found by Sharon Elliott in the Manhattan marriage list. I looked for this family in the 1900 census but could not find them.

There was a Philip Moore, who was age 14 in 1900 in Pittsburgh PA working in a church, and age 25 in 1910 as a Catholic priest in Pittsburgh. This may or may not be the right one - probably isn't.

I could expand the search for Matt and Mary in the 1900 census to 1840 to 1850, but I think I covered this in an earlier search (which I didn't document well last week). I could expand Ann*'s age range in the 1900 census.

Reality Check: the search is for Annie, not for Matt, Mary, Phil and Tony. If we had found them all together, it would have helped some, but it would not have told us what we really want to know, unless there was an obituary for them that pointed to Annie's married name and family. We have no evidence yet to support an obituary search.

There are many basic questions to be asked here:

1) Did Annie Moore survive until 1900? Death records for Manhattan are incomplete.

2) Did Annie, or her whole family, go back to Ireland?

3) Did Annie, or her whole family, move to another city or state in the US or Canada?

4) Did Annie Moore marry before 1900, and is she hiding in the 1900 census with her husband and children? There are 82 Ann* (born Ireland 1877+/- 1) in NY alone, who should be searched for January as a birth month and 1892 as immigration year. Next week!

5) Were Matt and Mary Moore the correct names of Annie's parents? The newspaper articles are all we have - they are probably correct but nobody can tell for sure.

6) Were Anthony and Philip the correct names of her brothers? I think probably so - it was an original record at Ellis Island - they must have got it pretty right.

7) Is Moore the right surname? Moor, Moores, Mower, Moon, etc. come to mind as alternative surnames in the census records. I think Moore is probably right, and one record might be misspelled, but we have no records to speak of, so who knows?

The fact that all of these people are very invisible in 1900 leads me to believe that some or all of what we think we know is wrong - the names, the ages, the locations, etc.

I have a few post-FHC thoughts that I've given above to follow up on next week. Additional suggestions, anyone?

1 comment:

Sharon said...

Quite a thorough search and summary! Where could Annie be hiding?

Your Morrissey family of 1910 is indexed in 1900 as Morressey. Mary Moore is there but no brothers for Annie.

~Sharon