About a month ago, I wrote about the recent discovery of photos of Annie Moore, the Irish teenager who was the first to arrive at Ellis Island when it opened on January 1, 1892. On December 29th of last year, the New York Times featured a photo of Annie that had been located by her great-granddaughter, Maureen Peterson. I was delighted that we could all finally see what this symbol of immigration -- and by extension, the American dream -- looked like. It was long overdue.
But I was also aware of two additional photos of Annie that had been unearthed -- one that was confirmed and one that seemed highly likely. Here is the second photo that has been verified, showing Annie as a young mother approximately six to seven years after her arrival. This image was found by her great-niece, Pat Somerstein, and includes one of Annie's daughters decked out in a fur-trimmed jacket and a halo of flyaway hair.
And now we come to the history mystery that I wrote about previously. Discovered by Annie's great-nephew, Michael Shulman, at the National Park Service's library at Ellis Island, this image appears to be Annie with her brothers on the day of their arrival at Ellis Island itself:
If that's true, this photo is historically significant. I would go as far as to call it iconic. But the question is whether the picture is truly Annie and her brothers.
I conducted extensive research and reached the conclusion that it almost definitely was them, but couldn't find any convenient, "smoking gun" proof that established this beyond any doubt. Still, I found ample evidence to support the notion, which you can read about in my earlier article.
Having been assured that this photo is in the public domain, I am now sharing it and asking for help to either prove or disprove that this is Annie. You can learn of arguments for and against in the previous article, but to assist the quest, I'd like to add two more paired images.
The first is a close-up of Annie from the confirmed photo above next to a close-up of the girl in the possible Ellis Island picture. The Ellis Island candidate was found before family members located the others, so it's intriguing that there's any resemblance at all. Photo detective, Maureen Taylor, declared the similarity "striking," but came up shy of asserting a match -- not surprising, given the quality of the images.
And here we have beams -- the top being from a detailed drawing of the interior of Ellis Island done in 1893 and the bottom being from the photo in question. I don't know how common this style of beam was at the time, but perhaps a reader with a background in architecture can shed some light.
So here's my plea. If you have expertise in facial recognition, architecture, the history of Ellis Island or the Barge Office that preceded it, or in any area that might contribute to the resolution of this mystery, please post comments here or email me, whether they support the claim or refute it. It was a virtual team of genealogists who restored Annie's place in history back in 2006, so I'm hoping that a similar crowd-sourcing approach will work again. Let's find the truth!
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Ears do not change as a person ages. Unfortunately, the young girl’s ear is only partially visible. The young girl’s eyes are hooded but the older woman’s are not. The eyebrow line appears simmiler. The nose on the older woman appears to be slightly puged but the young girl’s appears not to be. Face shape appears similar. Hair bangs are sometimes used to cover a broad forhead so no conclusion can be drawn. The womans eye seperation appears to be wider than the girls. You may want to have an expert measure the eye seperation. The upper lip of the older woman is bowed the young girl’s are not. The young girls lower lip appears to be quite full and the older woman’s not very full. If the older woman’s lips are natural then I would judge the them not to be the same person.
Regards, Jack Novicki
Thanks for your analysis. I'm hoping that it might be possible to get clearer/higher resolution images because folks seem to have very different interpretations of, for instance, the ears. While all agree that they're important, some say they support the notion, while others say they refute it. The only actual forensic photo analysis I've seen so far seems to support the idea that this is Annie, but we'll have to see as we continue to try to gather more evidence one way or another.
Thanks!
Megan
Many books show huge grecian columns and large diameter square beams used in the original construction of Ellis Island. None show the use at Ellis Island of the beams in the photo with the children. Megan's picture above is a photo of an illustration ( Harper's weekly, 1893 Aug. 26, p. 821, titled, " Detained immigrants on Ellis Island, New York harbor / Drawn by M. Colin") depicting a detention area for undesireables soon to be deported for a variety of reasons, criminal, illness, or likely to be a burden on society. Newspapers stated that Annie was met by her father and left soon after processing , It is unlikely that Annie and her brothers were held here for any reason,
Ellis Island: benches with horizontal planks, not spindles, and grecian columns supporting ceiling.
http://www.theshipslist.com/pictures/ellis/held.htm
Links to the Barge Office at Castle Garden:
http://castlegarden.org/i/timeline/details/y1867.png
Castle Garden: shows the wooden support beams and 45 degree struts, spindle furnituret in the center of the etching from the New York Historical Society.
http://www.theshipslist.com/pictures/baggs2.html
same beams and struts.
http://www.theshipslist.com/pictures/baggs1.html
same beams and struts.
You seem to think (if I'm understanding correctly) that the Barge Office was part of Castle Garden, but they were distinct processing centers. Also, it appears to me that the images you've located of Ellis Island are of the second one -- the one build after the fire in 1897. There are plenty of the rebuilt Ellis Island, but it's challenging to find interior, pre-fire images. Finally, it's clear that the image that may well be Annie and her brothers was in a different room than that of the detention area, but it's the only one located so far of the interior of the earlier Ellis Island. I hope (and believe!) that may change soon!
Thanks, Megan
An analysis of the paper and processing of the original photo of the children may reveal the date it was taken. Hopefully, you may know where, and the National Park Service, can find the resources, to have the photo tested at an appropriate forensic lab. Perhaps that would solve the mystery.....and wouldn't that be great.
Then I did what I should have done at the very first--I looked at the ears! Annie has a distinct lobe, Annie? does not.
I wanted these to be the same person but, in my opinion, they are not.
On another note -- the objection to the photograph due to the supposed age of Annie and her brothers is founded on twenty first and not nineteenth century biology. Few poor people in Ireland had regular access to milk and other foods that would enable people to grow to the size they reach here. After World War II, when the Japanese were exposed to an American diet, the average child grew several inches more than their parents. And, based on skeletal remains, the average Roman foot solider was five foot two...as soon as I turned the page and saw the picture, a near clone of my mother at that age, I knew this was Annie.
Apparently you care, since your first sentence was the claim that you and your sister are the closest descendents. There was nothing colloquial about it.
You refer to law and custom. You are a descendant in law only if there are no living direct descendants. That is not the case here, there are living great (and great-great) grandchildren. Why are you unwilling to acknowledge them?
I agree with you about tradition. Seeing as how tradition and family are so important to you, I think it is unfortunate that you refused to participate in your cousins' project to place a monument for Annie. You should go see it, they did a beautiful job.
I understand the comments about the apparent ages of the children, but I think that is subjective, these are poor children from over 100 years ago, I don't know what a 17 year old poor Irish girl ought to look like.
According to the baptismal records in Ireland, Annie's date of birth was April 24, 1874, making her 17 yrs, 8mos. 7 days old on 1/1/1892. The girl in the photo from Ellis Island appears to be about 13, and certainly not almost 18.
Her brother, Anthony, was born on 12/10/1876, making him 15 yrs, 21 days. The boy on the left appears to be about 14.
Philip's date of birth is 11/13/1879, making him 12 yrs, 1 mo., 18 days old. The boy on the right seems to be about 8 years old, but again, he does not look at all like he could be 12.
In comparing the 2 female photos, the young girl has a very narrow, long, pointed nose and the older woman has a wider bridge of the nose and a fuller width at the tip which is similar to a "pug nose".
The young girl has small almost squinty deep-set eyes, while the older woman's eyes are full, clear, and not deep-set. The eyes are the only organ in the body that remains the same size from birth to death.
The lips of each are entirely different in shape. On the left, top lip is pointed and bottom lip is flat. On the right, top lip is thin and flat, the bottom lip full.
I simply do not see a "striking" resemblance.
http://www.apple.com/ilife/iphoto/
but probably several should be tried. What our human eyes cannot detect with confidence, perhaps an algorithm would.
A very interesting mystery - thanks for writing about it!
Sharon Elliott
Michael Shulman
mshulman@verizon.net
Annie Moore has great grandchildren who would be her closest living descendents. They are the poeple who raised the money and placed the headstone on her grave at Calvalry cemetery in Queens. Perhaps you should have shared your information about pictures with them at the time, or at least made a donation.
The person that you are wrongfully attacking did share family information during that course in time and continues to. Perhaps if certain people on the project hadn't been hellbent on taking the glory and keeping other people from being invovled he would've had a bigger role in things. But now we'll never know, will we?