Most months, I cover a wide variety of genealogical topics, and while you'll find a gentle smattering this January (soldiers identified, a fun video game, etc.), my focus is unabashedly on my girl, Annie.
Annie Moore, the first immigrant to arrive at Ellis Island when it opened its doors in 1892, has been my grand obsession since 2002. And finally - on Feb 17th - my book about Annie and the effort to uncover her life will be published!
To offer you a taste, the feature article is this issue is the introduction to the book. If you find it to your liking, I invite you to order it from one of the links here: https://megansmolenyak.com/books/
You'll find it available in both paperback and eBook formats, and on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org (paperback only for those who love to support indies, but a slight discount!), and BookBaby. The price is $18.92 - a little nod to history since she arrived in 1892! - or $9.99 for the digital version.
Pre-orders (especially at Amazon) are helpful to authors, but here's a little secret: If you don't want to wait until 2/17, orders through BookBaby are fulfilled now! A few early birds already have their copies.
And finally, I apologize in advance for the following plea, but authors these days have little choice. If you read the book and enjoy it, I would be extremely grateful if you would take a few minutes to leave a review at any of the above-referenced sites (including BookBaby) - and/or to share it on social media. If you do the latter, feel free to tag me, so I can share your commentary as well.
Thanks so much! And until next time, stay warm and maybe curl up with a book!
P.S. This event was scheduled early last year, so the timing is a complete coincidence, but I'll be chatting over Zoom with the Irish Genealogical Research Society on February 16th - the day before the release of my book. I love how they describe our conversation as "a free ranging exploration of her Irish-centered research over the years with interesting diversions along the way into other genealogy issues of interest to her, which hopefully, will also be of interest to our audience."
Well, yes, I hope my meanderings will be of interest to our audience! And yeah, there's a better than even chance that Annie will be among the subjects we cover! Those who would like to join us can register here: https://www.irishancestors.ie/events
The Quest for Annie Moore of Ellis Island
Annie’s in charge and she’ll decide when she’s good and done with me.
She first tripped into my life back in 2002, and every time I think I’ve moved on from my obsession with her, she pulls me back in for another round. I may well spend the rest of my life excavating pieces of her past, but with 2024 being the 150th anniversary of her birth and the 100th of her passing, it seemed a fitting time to share what I've learned about Annie Moore over the years.
Anna "Annie" Moore was the first immigrant to arrive at Ellis Island. Students across the globe have traditionally been taught that the United States is a nation of immigrants, but a blanket statement like this requires serious qualification. Native Americans were here thousands of years before the first immigrant and most Africans were brought against their will. That said, if you're an American with even a single ancestor who was not Native or African, then Annie's story is part of yours, too. And Ellis Island, of course, is synonymous with the concept of immigration.
True, it’s entirely random that Annie was the first to alight, but by being so, she became a very real symbol of the immigrant dream, and by proxy, the American dream.
It also happens that Annie was from Ireland, a country that has the distinction of being almost as defined by those who have left as by those who stayed. Were you to generate a word cloud pertaining to Ireland, “emigration” would feature prominently. As one of millions who has departed her shores, Annie is also a symbol of Ireland’s diaspora.
Annie set sail from Cobh, then known as Queenstown, which is Ellis Island’s Irish counterpart. Though our ancestors came through more than a hundred ports including Seattle, Boston, Galveston, and Baltimore, Ellis Island dominates in our collective psyche, mainly due to its scale. In just a few generations, the more than 12 million who entered through its gates have proliferated so successfully that it’s estimated their descendants now include roughly 40% of Americans. Similarly, more than 40% (2.5 million of 6 million) of those who left Ireland during the country’s peak emigration period of 1848-1950 took their last steps on Irish soil at Cobh.
Through this double fluke of timing and geography, Annie accidentally became a representative of two nations – one historically known for importing people and the other for exporting them. The complementary, and in many ways, world-defining forces of immigration and emigration are all wrapped up in this one poster child – one who, it’s worth noting, was actually a child.
All of this is why a seemingly random immigrant has chapters dedicated to her in a variety of history books including Tyler Anbinder’s City of Dreams: The 400-Year Epic History of Immigrant New York, Małgorzata Szejnert's Ellis Island: A People's History, and Turtle Bunbury’s The Irish Diaspora: Tales of Emigration, Exile and Imperialism in which he describes Annie as “the most famous emigrant in American history.”
And yet, we got her story all wrong. Annie Moore, as you might expect, is a very common name, and we allowed a different Annie Moore to slip into the cracks of history and usurp the place of the true Annie – a case of historical identity theft. The story that follows will explain how that happened, the discovery of the error, the sleuthing to find the correct Annie, and what her life was really like.
I hope in sharing her tale to also offer a glimpse of the messiness of the research process. If you watch any of the popular roots shows, everything seems so linear – chronological and tidy – but that's only done after the fact when inches of paper and gigabytes of data are streamlined and distilled for easy consumption. My aim is to reflect something closer to reality.
Photo: (Left) – Annie and her brothers as commemorated in a statue at
Cobh Heritage Centre (credit: Katherine Borges) and (right) – on the day they arrived at Ellis Island (colorized)
The Quest for Annie Moore of Ellis Island – For those who have been asking about an ebook version of “The Quest for Annie Moore of Ellis Island,” I’m happy to report that it’s now available for pre-order!
The Quest for Annie Moore of Ellis Island – For anyone wondering about the strange price point for my Annie Moore of Ellis Island book, she arrived on 1 Jan 1892 - hence, $18.92. A little nod to history! #genealogy
The Quest for Annie Moore of Ellis Island – 133 years ago today, Annie Moore of Ireland became the first immigrant to arrive at Ellis Island. 🗽 150 years since her birth and 100 years since her passing, it’s long past time to tell her story. Learn more in “The Quest for Annie Moore of Ellis Island.”
Genealogy Classic: If You’re a Wee Bit Irish – Not long ago, I was persuaded to republish a 2002 article I wrote about genetic genealogy, and much to my surprise, readers loved it. After that experience, I decided to take an occasional dive into my archives and re-share selected old favorites. Some are timeless in nature, but even those that are dated, have some useful insights. I hope you’ll enjoy my “Genealogy Classics.”
On January 1, 1892, Annie Moore of Ireland tripped into the pages of history and became the poster child of immigration by being the first to arrive at Ellis Island. And then she disappeared. Adding insult to injury, a different Annie Moore usurped her place in history decades later. Now – 150 years after her birth and 100 years after her death – a determined genealogist finally sets the record straight and reveals the true story of Ellis Island’s first.
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