Person:Sabina Shanley (1)

Sabina "Binie" Shanley rented house which she rented out to lodgers.

She helped raise her niece, Jessie Brown who was the eldest daughter of her sister, Elizabeth. No one is sure why Jessie was "shared" with Aunt Binie. Perhaps there was not enough space or money to raise her once Elizabeth's younger children were born. In any case, Binie lived close to Elizabeth so that Jessie could visit her parents often. According to Betty Smith, sharing children with relatives who had none of their own was apparently a common thing to do.

Sabina Shanley is listed in the 1910 census (roll 1306, ed 588, sheet 14A, line 30) as living with John J. Murray and and Jessie Murray, her neice, at 717 Arch Street in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. According to the census she was 55 years old at the time, implying that she was born in 1854 or 1855. According to the census, Sabina was born in Ireland and the immigrated to the United States in 1889. She had no occupation at the time and was single.

Also at the Murray household in 1910 were eight lodgers: Carl Smith (age 30, saleperson at a dry goods store), William Phillips (29, clerk at a mill and mine supply company), Elizabeth Martin (46, clerk), Sarah Smith (43, manicurist), Elizabeth Dimmick (37, bookkeeper), Eugene Warner (25, railroad engineer), William Parson (23, clerk), and Ida Kurtz (46, nurse). The house was perhaps the house that Sabina rented out, and not John Murray's house.

If Sabina did come to the US in 1889, this would be much later than her sister, Elizabeth, who came to the US in 1868. It would also mean that she began to raise Jessie when she was about 4 or 5 years old.

Binie used to take Jessie Brown to visit relatives who lived in New York. These must have been cousins. Betty Smith did not think they were Shanleys, but Ryans. She has a photo of the family. The mother was a very large woman and apparently did not keep house very well. Once when Jessie was visiting, she gave her son some money and told him to go buy a table cloth before dinner, implying that she did not have a clean one on hand.

Binie used to run a sort of boarding home with mostly male renters. It was not a true boarding home since they did not serve meals to the tenants.

Binie died of pneumonia on March 10. 1912 at the age of 53. She is buried at the Calvary Cemetary.

In the 1880 census Sabina is found working as a servant to the Josiah Ketcham family in Belvidere, Warren County, New Jersey. Josiah Ketcham was the editor of the "Apolla" and is also found in the 1887 Warren County directory. www.mynjfamily.freeservers.com/custom2.html

1. ↑ The National Archives of the UK. United Kingdom Census
   1861, Escombe, Durham, England, p40.
2. ↑ General Register Office England. Birth Registration for Sabina Shanley
   v 9c, p 137.
3. ↑ Pittsburgh Post Gazette
   March 12, 1912.

   Obituary for Sabina Shanley

4. ↑ United States. 1880 U.S. Census Population Schedule. (National Archives Microfilm Publication T9).

   roll 799, ed 190, sheet 17A, line 14

5. ↑ United States. 1910 U.S. Census Population Schedule. (National Archives Microfilm Publication T624)
   Database online. Pittsburgh Ward 22, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, ED , roll T624_1306, part , page .

   roll 1306, ed 588, sheet 14A, line 30

6. ↑ Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics. Death Certificate for Sabina Shanley. (Name: file no. 32750;).