Ann Raftery 1834 : Short Biography

Ann Raftery stepped off of the Ship Redwing and onto the docks of New York City in 1842.  She was eighteen and had traveled with her younger and older sisters, Jane and Honora, from Kilconnell Parish in Galway.  Her parents, Mary and Michael Raftery remained behind in Ireland.  Ann would spend the next forty-six years of her life in the City.

Sometime during the next three years, she married Michael O’Connor, also from Kilconnell Parish. Michael had arrived in the City earlier and carried with him his trade as a milk man.  In 1845, they had their first child, John.. The young family moved to Williamsburg, across the East River and had their second child in 1850, Mary Jane.  Two more children followed, Kate and George.

The family moved back to Manhattan around 1860 and settled on 10^th Avenue in the Hell’s Kitchen section of the City.  Ann was the homemaker with Michael still in the milk business while Mary Jane and Kate worked as seamstresses.  The Hell’s Kitchen section of Manhattan by the Hudson River was the major meat processing center for the ever expanding City. George worked there as a butcher.  John, the first son, does not appear in any records after 1850 - so sad.

Enter James Flynn, also a butcher, who married Mary Jane in 1873 in St. Michael’s Church.  They had four sons who survived child birth.  James was from Ennybegs, County Longford, and he knew George.  George named his first son, James.  The Flynn’s lived on 10th Avenue by the O’Connor’s.

Ann was surrounded by family and grandchildren.  But in 1881, Michael died, James, George’s son, died in a drowning accident on July 4, 1888. He fell off the wharf into the North River at the foot of 44^th Street according to the New York Times.

Mary Jane died in October of 1888, George died in March of 1889 and Ann died in July of 1889.  Her death certificate reads in part: death due to a broken heart.  All are buried in Calvary Cemetery, Woodside, Long Island, outside the City.

The Flynn four sons, Joseph, Thomas, Edward and William were sent to O’Connor relatives in Jersey City, New Jersey and adopted the name, O’Connor.  James Flynn continued in his occupation as a butcher living in Hell’s Kitchen until he entered Metropolitan Hospital where he died on January 28, 1906. More than likely he’s buried on Hart’s Island, part of the City. There is no indication of contact between James and his sons after Mary Jane died.

One of the four sons, Thomas Leo O’Connor, is my wife, Joan’s, father.  He died when she was two months old.  We live outside the City.

The above story is entitled The City and has been written by Ronald Straube, Tewksbury, Massachusetts