Person:Annie Dowd (2)

Roxboro Road and Quarry Road, Limerick

Annie was born in March 1890, the youngest of ten surviving children of Michael O'Dowd and Mary Reynolds. At the time Annie was born the family was likely living on Roxboro Road as she was baptized in the Roman Catholic Parish of St. Michaels. The family had previously lived on Rathbane in the parish of Donoughmore. Family lore recalls that Michael, a victualler and cattle-dealer, had two shops in Limerick, and the family moved between the two neighborhoods in which these shops were located.

Annie's mother died at some point between her birth and her third year when her father, as a widower, remarried to Catherine O'Keeffe and subsequently had several more children. In 1893 she also lost her brother Patrick, who drowned in a quarry. Annie learned to read and write, although her school has not been identified. In the late 1890s, some of her older sisters began emigrating to New York. Her sister Kate was likely the first to go in 1896, with Johanna following in 1899.

Around 1902 the family moved across Limerick to Quarry Road in Thomondgate. Here, she likely met another Thomondgate resident who would later become her husband.

In 1906, as Annie turned 16, her father Michael died, aged fifty. His death threw the family into turmoil and it was, unfortunately, an experience that would repeat in Annie's life.

Working in Kilkee

By 1906 it is likely that most of her older siblings had left the family home. However, when her father died several of her half siblings were still infants. Annie probably had to fend for herself at this relatively young age and she accomplished this by finding work as a waitress in the seaside resort town of Kilkee, almost 70 kilometers from Limerick on the coast of County Clare. By 1909 she had saved twenty five dollars and formed plans to emigrate to New York. Her sister Margaret, now married to Thomas Hehir and living in Limerick on Carry's Road, paid her passage. She left Ireland from Queenstown aboard the S.S. Arabic, on 3 October 1909. She was travelling third class and arrived in New York on 11 October 1909 with her final destination being her sister Mary Dowd at 1038 Bergen Street, Brooklyn. She is described on the passenger manifest as 5 foot 2 inches with a fair complexion and dark hair and dark eyes.

Brooklyn, 1909-1914

Marriage, Family and Manhattan

Crisis

Remarriage

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc. New York City, New York, United States. Ellis Island/Port of New York Records
   11 Oct 1909.

   Line 7

2. ↑ Church Baptism Record, in Irish Family History Foundation. RootsIreland. (Newbridge, County Kildare, Ireland).

   Father: Michael Dowd. Mother: Mary Reynolds.

3. ↑ 23andMe. 23andMe. Maternal Line: U5b2c. (23andMe).