9781422287460

10 Ellis Island: The Story of a Gateway to America

The Moore family wanted to leave Ireland because times were hard on the island. During the 19th century, famine had swept through Ireland. From 1845 to 1849, the country’s important potato crop had failed. Suddenly, people didn’t have enough to eat. More than a

million Irish citizens died from starvation and dis- ease. During the famine years, as many as 1.5 mil- lion Irish citizens left their country, many of them making their way to the United States. Even after the famine ended, people continued to

Make Connections Queenstown, the Irish town where Annie Moore

departed for Ellis Island, was also the last port of call for the Titanic on the luxury liner’s ill- fated maiden voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in 1912. Today, the city is known by its Gaelic name, Cobh.

leave Ireland seeking a better life. Ireland was ruled by Great Britain, and there were few opportunities for Irish Catholics in their homeland. Many people had to leave Ireland in order to find work and raise their families in a place where they would not be persecuted by the gov- ernment. The S.S. Nevada had made the trip from Ireland to the United States many times. The ship had started ferrying immigrants across the Atlantic in 1869 and would con- tinue making the trip until 1894. Annie and her brothers arrived in New York Harbor on January 1, 1892—Annie’s 15th birthday. Their ship sailed slowly past the Statue of Liberty, the 151-foot-tall