Ann Fox : Short Biography

My great-grandmother Ann Fox was born in Oldcastle, Meath, in March, 1848. We don't know the exact date of her birth but she was baptizd in the church in Oldcastle on March 5, 1848.

Her parents were Patrick Fox of Kilskyre, Meath, and Catherine Gibney of Oldcastle.They were married in Oldcastle in July, 1842.

Ann was the fourth of seven children, Four were born in Oldcastle, and the three youngest were born in the United States after the family emigrated. The children were: John, Nicholas, Luke, Ann, Julia, Cornelius, Margaret, Patrick, Thomas, and James. They were born between 1843 and 1861.

As far as we can ascertain, the family emigrated to the U.S. on the ship Rappahannock and arrived in New York on May 23, 1855. They settled in Greenwich, Connecticut, about an hour north of New York.

Around 1869-70, Ann married Parick Sarsfield Finn from Galway. We haven't much information about him except that he had been a weaver in Galway and was probably born there around 1846. We don't know when he came to the U.S. but it could have been after Ann arrived.

He tried to find work in the woolen mills in Massachusetts, where their oldest daughter was born in 1872, but eventually returned to Greenwich where he started a very successful stone mason business. They had twelve children in all: John Henry 1870-1875; Mary b. 1872; William 1873-1874; Catherine b. 1875; Martin b. 1876; Luke b. 1878; Ann b. 1880; Gertrude b. 1881; John b. 1883; Thomas b. 1885; Isabelle b. 1888; Rose b. 1890.

She died on 15 October 1929, just thirteen days after the death of her brother Nicholas, who was a Medal of Honor winner in the American Civil War.

This photo shows her around 1917 with her three youngest daughters, Rose Munnick on the left, Gertrude Spillane in the center, and Isabelle O'Brien (my grandmother) on the right, and only a few of her many grandchildren.