Mary was born in County
Carlow and christened on 1 Jul 1883. (I've been unable to find her birth certificate in
Dublin either!)
Mary made no direct contact with her family again after leaving Ireland in 1907 and she was an unspoken subject.Therefore details are scant of her life in the US.
She was a domestic servant and she married either WILLIAM
O'BRIEN or JAMES
QUINLAN (or a permutation of both as there is an equal division within the family as to which one she married!) possibly from
Waterford about 1911-1913, but not in
Philadelphia as we have had the court records checked there. (I may have found his entry into the US through
Ellis Island in 1897 but he was a butcher and her husband supposedly was 'good with his hands working with wood' and possibly worked on or near the railroad). We are aware there were at least two children from this marriage.
Date and place of death are not known. I have tried to match her details with the SSDI but due to her uncertain surname that is also proving difficult. I also trawled through the 1920 Census and found only one entry which could have been a possible but was so badly filmed it wasn't very legible.
We do have a photograph of the 'happy couple' we are considering posting to some newspapers in the Philadelphia/Radnor area as her grandchildren and great grandchildren would really like to make contact and to visit the family over there.
Our next possiblilty is to perhaps have the court records at
Radnor checked for a marriage.
I like your optimism that 'this should be easy'!Any information or guidance will be gratefully received as there are many years to make up as you can see.
Many thanks in anticipation - Sally