To the right is a photo of the White Star Line's Oceanic (II), which was built at Belfast's Harland & Wolff shipyard in 1899. Until 1901 this ocean liner was the largest ship in the world, and until requisitioned by the Royal Navy in 1914 and run aground that same year off Shetland, she carried thousands of immigrants to new lives in America from the ports of Cherbourg, Southampton, Liverpool, and Queenstown (Cobh).
One such passenger, who boarded Oceanic at Queenstown on 8 May 1913 and debarked at Ellis Island one week later on the 15th, was Laurence O'Reilly of Ballyhaunis, Mayo. Before I go into what the ship's manifest says about him, I'd like to fill in a little background on him first. He was born on 2 December 1883 and baptized Laurence Christopher O'Reilly on 5 December 1883 at St. Agatha's, Dublin (Laurentius Christopherus O'Riely in the transcribed record). His father, Laurence John O'Reilly, a Superintendent in the Dublin Metropolitan Police, was head of the household in the 1901 Irish census when the entire family lived at 5 North Richmond Street. Laurence Christopher, the oldest son, was 17. By 1911, Supt. O'Reilly had retired and moved his family back to his home county of Mayo. 27-year-old Laurence Christopher is still in their household at Carrowneden, just outside Ballyhaunis, in the census of that year.
The first page of the manifest of Oceanic's May 1913 voyage gives his age as 28 (he had actually turned 29 the previous December), says he is a shop assistant, of British nationality and Irish origin, last residence is Ireland and his father is Laurence O'Reilly of Ballyhaunis. It's on the second page of the manifest that things get really interesting: the younger Laurence's destination is Hazleton, Pennsylvania (spelled "Hazelton" on the manifest), his steerage ticket was paid by his father back in Ireland, and the relative he was on his way to was his "Aunt Mrs. Delia Fagan" of Lattimer Mines. And there it was: my great-great grandmother's name, in black-and-white, confirmed as the sister of this Laurence's father! Even though I was already sure of her place within the O'Reilly family back in Ireland based on the few records I had, the surviving records contained some inconsistencies in names and dates. This passenger list explicitly laid out the family relationship, and since it refers to her married name, Fagan, there's absolutely no doubt of her identity. It was exactly the kind of concrete evidence I'd hoped to find, and in a most unexpected place! This definitely ranks very high on the list in terms of the most exciting family document finds for me.
The lesson here is that it's always worthwhile to check immigration records for collateral relatives. You may be surprised what information the passenger lists for these other relatives can tell you about people in your own direct line, and they may provide precisely the evidence you need to link your own family back to their family of origin in their native country.
For more on Adelia O'Reilly Fagan:
What's in a name? Adelia, Delia, Bedilia and Bridget; or check out all posts tagged "O'Reilly".
Image: 'Oceanic' moored at Harland & Wolff shipyard, Belfast courtesy PRONI (via flickr)
Sources:
Ancestry.com. New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
The National Archives of Ireland. Census of Ireland 1901/1911 and Census fragments and substitutes, 1821-51 [database online.]
Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. Church Records [database online].
