Anne Coyle : Short Biography

Anne Coyle was born to Anthony Coyle and Sophia Heraghty, baptized in Clondavadogg in 1854. Anthony and Sophia also had Sarah and Michael, born in 1851 and 1858, respectively, also in Clondavadogg. (There are three older sisters, Bridget, Sophia and Mary Coyle, born in the 1840s, who may have had a different mother). Sophia passed "when the children were young", according to oral family history (after 1858). In May 1878, Anne and Patrick Doherty, a postman in Londonderry, were married at St. Columba's Church, Longtower in Londonderry. While Anne was pregnant with their first born, Patrick developed a brain tumor and died at home on April 28, 1880, two weeks after the birth of their son, John Evison Doherty. John was baptized in St. Eugene's, closer in proximity to the family's home on Foyle View. May 22, 1882, Anne (28), her son, her sister Mary Coyle Evison (38) and father, Anthony (60) arrived in New York City to join Bridget Coyle Elliot and Sarah Coyle Jack,  who had emigrated there in the 1870s. Anthony supposedly died at sea, but he is on the ship's incoming manifest. No further record of him in the US can be found. Anne met and married Robert Gibbs in New York City. John Evision Doherty was tragically killed in a building collapse at age 5 in 1885. The couple went on to have six children: William Prankard Gibbs, John Robert Gibbs (also died as a child), Robert James Gibbs, Sophia Mary Gibbs, Anna Agnes Gibbs and Anthony Coyle Gibbs. The family moved to Ridgefield Park, NJ in 1914 and resided there until their respective deaths.