Meeting Anne

Anne Hoey 1914

I became a genealogist because I had no choice. I was obsessed with the stories I had been told about my immigrant ancestor, Anne Hoey Nolan, and couldn't stop wanting to know more. 

My introduction to formal history study was rooted in the understanding of history as told by the great people. I thought for a long time that if someone did not leave a stack of letters or a detailed diary, there was no way to reconstruct their life. Via this blog and my research, I learned that there are many ways to piece together someone’s life story. 

I knew from oral history and some research my grandmother did (the 1800 Census and the Griffith Valuation of Ireland) that I was directly descended from Anne, who came to America from County Mayo, Ireland, in 1847. I knew the name of the boat on which she traveled: the Emma Prescott.

She landed in New York City on August 10th because, well into the 1930s, her extended family had a party every year on that day. I knew that she eventually moved to White Plains and then Port Chester, where she was buried, because we visited her grave. I also knew she married a fellow Irishman (John Nolan) and had many children, two of whom (John and Stephen) drowned around Christmas time in an ice-skating accident because we were told that cautionary tale. I knew my grandmother had met Anne and had been social with many of Anne’s children and grandchildren because stories of their parties and picnics filled my evenings with my grandmother. Most intimately, I knew I shared her name (I am Amy Anne) and that I was the 6th first-born daughter, directly from her to me. (making my daughter the 7th). I did and still do carry all of that with great pride, but I wanted to know more.

I wanted to meet Anne. 

My cousin's Dan and Chrissy 

My path to meet Anne began with Ancestry. com. The green leaves and the details provided confirmed many parts of our family story. I also got a lot of details and links that were just not correct, and while I found them distracting at first, I soon learned that investigating them gave me ideas for further sources of content to explore. For example, Anne Hoey landed in New York in 1890. That date did not match our timeline, but this record brought me to the passenger lists of the immigrant boats. (Other family members have found the same entry at Ellis Island!) Because I knew the boat's name from our family stories, I found the Emma Prescott from 1847. I saw an Anne Edwards on the passenger list (Anne’s aunt, whom she was traveling to meet). I have hypothesized that the Aunt’s name was on Anne’s documentation and was easily transcribed to the passenger list when she boarded. 

Stepping beyond Ancestry dot com was both daunting and rewarding. As I learned more about research and met trained genealogists, I understood the deep sources of information contained in state and local records. I searched for details of Anne’s sons' drowning and found a notice of a single body (a boy aged 7, John Nolan) being shipped from White Plains, New York, to Calvary Cemetery, March 8, 1869, and signed by John Nolan (his father). A corresponding newspaper notice confirmed John’s death by drowning.  I found no mention of a second son.

Digging further, baptism records—at Immaculate Conception Church in Manhattan and later at St. John the Evangelist in White Plains — on Finding My Past were found for all of Anne’s children, minus a Stephen; perhaps there was not a second son who drowned, and this name and his story were added later in the confusion of family lore? 

I’d always marveled at another part of our family story — that Anne (after her husband passed away) bought a home on her own - for cash. I’d assumed I’d never be able to find a record of that, thinking, in error, that women could not buy homes on their own in New York State. They could, and she did. I found the deed of sale with the address and her name. The house still stands, and I have stood outside of it. 

I created walking tours - one in Ireland and one in New York - focusing on places where I documented Anne had lived or worked. 

Seaport Museum schooner

I found Anne in the 1850 U.S. Census, as a servant in the home of a man named Rufus Davenport. Using New York City Directories, I found his home and work addresses (8 MacDougal and 35 Peck Slip). I began to build the tour around those locations, with the shameful pride of a novice web blogger, and plopped the locations on a Google map. I noticed the work location for Mr. Davenport was yards from the first spot I had marked - the embarkation point of the Emma Prescott in 1847. I recalled my grandmother's story that Anne had walked off the boat and been interviewed for a job at Ellis Island; I wondered if, in fact, Anne had walked off the boat and up the street and into Mr. Davenport’s place of work. I will likely never know, but it feels probable to me, and I embrace the theory. 

Peck Slip, New York, 1850s

I will say that both staring at those dots on the map AND later standing on the spot where the boat docked and glancing north to where Mr. Davenport’s establishment once stood  (in today's New York neighborhood, Peck Slip), I was not alone. A brave and powerful woman stood with me. 

In that moment, 

I met Anne.