I was Annie McGrath. This is my story. I was born Mary Ann McGrath in Ireland, baptized in Granard Parish in County Longford, on the 6th of May, 1861. Everyone called me Annie. My father, Edward, and mother, Ann McKeon, lived in a small house in Granard Townland. The Great Famine was over. Times were pretty good. Father was a laborer, while Mother took care of the house and of having babies. I was eldest. Two years later, Thomas. When I was four, Michael. I was seven when little Edward Joseph arrived. By the time Maggie and Peter showed up, I was helping out.
We loved to run through the area, climbing up Bruce Hill to
play soldiers and wading through the lakes to catch fish and tadpoles. We had
lots of dreams. One time, my friend Bridget and I were sitting on Bruce Hill
talking. I said, “If you could get away from here, where would you go?”
Bridget looked at me like I was crazy and answered, “Go? Why
would I go away? Look at this beautiful place!”
“What!?” I asked, “I would get away from Ireland. To a place
where I can make a life for myself! There’s a world out there, just waiting for
me.”
Bridget laughed at me. “A life for yourself? You need to
find a good boy to marry and have lots of babies, like everyone we know.” I
kept my mouth shut. Was she right? Was
wanting adventure so wrong?
Another summer passed. Father was sick. I was pretty
unaware, being only ten, but we had to move out of our house. Two years went by.
He kept having fewer days when he could work. Mother started taking in laundry
and sewing to make ends meet. In June of 1874, Father died of liver cancer.
Mother added house-cleaning to make money. At twelve years old, I was in charge
of my five younger siblings. I couldn’t go run through the fields. I had to
cook dinner, not to mention clean house. I hated cleaning. I hated being
responsible. Why did Father have to die?
Mother’s step-mom Margaret McKeon lived right over in
Leitrim Townland, with her son, my Uncle John, and his sweetheart, Mary McKeon.
They got married when I was seven. Mary McKeon was from Ballymacroly, so even
though she and John were both McKeons, they were not cousins. Grandma Margaret
was the second wife of Michael McKeon. His first wife, Rose, was Mother’s
mother. Grandma Margaret had lived through many tough years, and many deaths. She
and Michael had seven children, five surviving. We all would get together for
family meals on Sundays. We kids would race around outside Uncle John’s house,
playing hide-and-seek or bad-guys vs good-guys. The neighbors didn’t want their
kids to associate with us wild ones. That was okay with me, since I didn’t
fancy any of those boys.
As I was helping Aunt Mary clean up the dishes one Sunday,
Grandpa was looking at the newspaper. There were advertisements about going to
America. He said to my mom, “The life you are living is not going to keep you
and six kids alive, Ann. Look at this ad. It says life is great over there in
the New World.”
Mother scoffed, “And how are we going to afford that?”
After looking at the ceiling a minute, he offered, “If we
put all we have together, in a few years, we can send Thomas. He can find work and
send you what he makes, so one more can go overseas. Two McGraths in America
can send more money home…” The seed was planted in my dreams.
1879. Thomas has left for New York. We had used everything
we could scrape together for his trip. We had no money and no house. Grandma
Margaret, Uncle John and Aunt Mary could take are of two or three of the youngest
kids. Michael and I were on our own. Maybe there was work in Dublin? We hiked
the 62 miles, but found no work. We joined other teenagers and begged and stole
what we could, sharing among ourselves to survive. But I got caught! I was
convicted of vagrancy and sent to Grangegorman Women’s Prison in Dublin. There,
I was given clothing, bedding, shoes, and even a handkerchief. We, half-starved,
were fed oatmeal and milk for breakfast, and potatoes and buttermilk for dinner.
It was heaven on earth. No wonder so many women were in and out of Grangegorman
over and over. It was survival when we could not get work. Sentences for vagrancy
were for 2 weeks to a month. During that time, we worked on sewing and laundry,
and spent several hours a day learning reading, writing, and arithmetic. Also,
the priest visited. The fool believed we needed moral guidance! Apparently, starving
was no excuse for stealing.
I went back home, where at least I had people who knew me
and cared about me. There used to be charitable groups who would help young
women get overseas. They would train them in some skill, then put them on a
ship. But they were focused on the west coast of Ireland, and they had pretty
much faded away by the time I could have used them.
Thomas finally sent money! The family and I make a plan to
get to the promised land. They called it “chain migration”. Each person would
send money back home so that the next person could come. Thomas warned us away
from New York City, so we decided on Boston. We had to hurry, since little 6-year-old
Peter and 9-year-old Maggie were so thin. They caught every disease that went
through Leitrim Townland.
1882. I had a ticket on the S.S. City of Paris from Queenstown,
Ireland, to New York, United States! Grandma Margaret, Mother, Uncle John and
Aunt Mary packed my necessities to live in a new place. I would never again sit
on Bruce Hill and admire my lovely home. As I tearfully hugged my brothers and
sister, I promised that I would send every penny home, and I would see them on
the other side of the Atlantic.
Thomas met me at the port in New York. It had been three
long years! He had figured out how to get me to Leicester, Massachusetts, where
he knew somebody. It was basically a tenement, crowded with other refugees from
poor old Ireland, but we were able to make do. We sent as much money as we could
back to our families. We learned English. And we met people.
I met a real charmer, John Abner
Ackley. He wooed me with his violin! He was an adventurer, too. We made plans
to marry and go West, looking for silver.
This is a fictionalized account of great-grandma Mary Ann McGrath’s life. It is based on source material which you can see in my Genealogists.com McKeon and McGrath Research Report: Leitner – Project 18464, 18 July 2018. The Grangegorman record was discovered by Muriel ‘Molly’ Ackley. She also commissioned the gravestone. Thank you, Molly. All of the links can be found, not behind a pay wall, at WikiTree. Mary Ann McGrath.
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