Many Irish went to Manchester first -- often to find jobs, and perhaps with their parents ..... but some like my own two greatgrandparents went to Manchester because they were sent to orphanages there by the ruling British authorities in Ireland after their parents died in the Great Famine. My greatgrandparents were also married at Nativity Church on Second Avenue, which I understand is still in existence. The common people were poor and hungry all over Europe in those days. There was no democracy. People were at the mercy of landed gentry who abused them and made great wealth off their labors. The Irish had no unions, no vote, no recourse to any enlightened civil law to help them. Remember the USA colonies rebelled from all that and set up a democracy of the highest order, although we appear now to be heading back in the old direction and giving up many of our cherished civil liberties without a second thought today. There were excellent jobs available for those English-speaking Irish girls in the USA at that time .... and they came alone and with sisters and friends when they could .... by the thousands every week! In cities like New York and Boston as housemaids, cooks, nannies, seamstresses who could live in warm and fine homes, have three meals and uniforms provided, and earn a wage besides (perhaps saving those wages to bring over their siblings and even their parents). After becoming acclimated they could move out into the shops and large stores being built in Manhattan, open their own millinery or dressmaking businesses. Find husbands. The whole world was open to them in America. Jobs for Irish women were much better and much more readily available than jobs for Irish men or other immigrants at that time. In the Boston area there were textile mills needing thousands of those bright English-speaking girls .... they built dormitories for them and recruited sisters and friends to come to America and live and work together. Go back in the US Censuses as far as you can, seeking her and possibly her parents, and then try the British Censuses for Manchester, also looking for her parents as well. All the censuses for that era in the British Isles and in the USA are readily available on Ancestry.com at a library in your area or by personal subscription. ----- Original Message ----- From: Debbi Powell To: NYNEWYOR@rootsweb.com Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 9:54 AM Subject: [NYNEWYOR] Mary Ellen Sullivan nee Eaton [Advice/help needed] Hi, I am trying to find some information about my x2 great grandfather's sister and try to figure out why it came that she moved to the USA from England, as far as I can tell, with the information I have, on here own. Her name was Mary Ellen Eaton (Father: John Eaton, Mother: Bridget Eaton nee Corrigan). She was born c1856 in Ireland but lived in Manchester, England (found in the 1861 census). When in the USA she married a Timothy James Sullivan (Born: Massachusetts. Father: Jeremiah Sullivan, Mother: Elizabeth Lovett) at Nativity Church, on the 10th Nov 1878, Manhatten, New York, New York. I have also found them on the 1880 United States census on West 49th Street, Manhatten, New York. This is the only information I have been able to find on her and I would be extremely grateful for any help or advice anybody could give me, as I would love to know some information about her and how she came to live in the US, but I have never researched any family history in the US before. Thank you Debbi Jim Garrity, List Administrator jimgarrity@earthlink.net ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to NYNEWYOR-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message