Searching

I am third generation Irish American and I did not come to Ireland looking for my family.

To be fair, I specifically didn’t come looking for family because I knew I wouldn’t find any. For the Jermyn’s, Walsh’s, and Davis’, the early 20^th century was the perfect time to uproot themselves and head to America. However, after finding out that the class would make a trip to Belfast, I did create a goal for myself: I wanted to go to the Titanic Museum and look at the passenger manifest. When I did so, I was looking for one specific name: Ms. Annie Jane Jermyn.

The exterior of the museum at night. I found it this to be in slightly poor taste but the whole thing is supposed to resemble an iceberg  

When I was in fourth grade, my class did a project on the heritage of each individual student. My Nana was the keeper of the records and my main source of information for this project. 

My cousin Jake, my Nana, and I

She told me all about my Great Grandmother who came over from Italy at the age of 18 and was the first woman in her community to learn how to drive and get her license. She let me make scans of the immigration papers of both of her parents and told me all about her life growing up during the great depression but what she left out was information about my Grandfather’s side of the family, the side that gave me my surname. After continuously asking for more information in what was probably a pestering manner, she offered me three facts:

1.     The names of my Great Grandparents were Mary and Elmer Jermyn and they had a turkey farm

2.     My Great Great Grandfather’s name was George

3.     We did have a relative on the Titanic. She was 3^rd class and she still survived

At this point in my life, I was just beginning to develop my acute obsession with all things related to the Titanic and this final fact was the one that really stuck with me but at that point in my life, jumping on Google and digging into records wasn’t easy as it is for me now.

Going to the Titanic Museum in Belfast last week rekindled my desire to know more about this family member. As I got to the section of the gallery that talked about the aftermath of the disaster, visitors were invited to browse through the passenger manifest on digital tablets. I immediately searched for the name Jermyn. Annie, age 26, popped up immediately but something was wrong: her nationality was listed as Danish.

I didn’t know that a mistake like that would affect me so much but I realized that the error was still in the back of my mind as we got back to Dublin that night so I decided to send a note of complaint to the museum. I informed them of the problem and even directed them to an article from Annie’s hometown and an article from an American newspaper talking about her experience as proof of her nationality. As of this time, I still have yet to hear back from anyone.

After I sent that message, I felt compelled to do some more digging. I wanted to know more about Annie because I felt a strange connection with her. She was only a few years older than me when she left for America. I could imagine her being as scared as I was to come on this trip.

I ended up finding a family photograph that must have been taken just a few years before she made her journey to America.

Annie Jane is in the top row, the third from the left

 I also found a census record for her family, taken in 1901. It was very sobering to see her siblings’ names listed out. 

It must have been so hard to leave them behind. I know how hard it is to say goodbye to my brother when I go back to school.

My brother Cole and I in Millennium Park the month before I started college

No one seems to know what happened to Annie in the end. Supposedly she fell in love with a man who was deemed unsuitable and her family estranged her. Not much has been recorded after that point but it was still important for me to find out about this part of my heritage that I knew so little about before. Now I can consider myself the family expert.