Travelled to Griffins Harbour, Spotted Island, Labrador with her father's fishing schooner for a summer, circa 1919. She was the cook. She was responsible for cooking for a crew of men. Once at Griffins Harbour, they stayed in a 2 room fish house. She slept in the kitchen near the stove, her father slept in the doorway between the kitchen and the main room where all the other men slept. Ellen recalls that each fish house had a cook (I am not sure if all were girls) but they would have dances on a Saturday night with a squeezebox or a fiddle. The sailors would dance.
One time, the girls spread pepper on the floor, and when the sailors began their jigs, it stirred up such a dust that everyone left sneezing! She also recalls that the Indians (Montagnais) would come for Tea on Sundays; they would go house to house. They dressed in western clothes except for beaded moccasins.
Ellen Costigan Carey ran a beauty parlor for about 50 years from her home. Originally, it was on her porch (during the depression) until a code enforcement officer came around and told her she had to have walls, running water, a bathroom etc.
At one time, she told her son, Robert Graves, that she had relatives in Philadelphia, PA.
Ellen Costigan emigrated to the States some time after 1921 since she is listed in the 1921 NF census, living in Harbour Main
