An Interesting Piece of History

One of my favorite songs (from Celtic Woman, once again :D) is "Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears".

There is one part where the lyrics say

"On the first day on January, Eighteen ninety-two, 
They opened Ellis Island and they let 
The people through. 
And the first to cross the treshold 
Of that isle of hope and tears, 
Was Annie Moore from Ireland 
Who was all of fifteen years."

I've always wondered if Annie Moore really was the first person. So what did I do? I did what any other person with Google search at their fingertips would do. :D I searched: "annie moore ellis island"


I found a Wikipedia ARTICLE on her.


I started looking around this article. I found out that she really was the first person admitted through Ellis Island. But researchers in Ireland think that she had actually turned 17 a few months earlier. She came over here with a couple brothers, and her parents were already over here. 

Then it said she died on October 11, 1924 and was buried in Calvary Cemetery, Queens, and showed a picture of her headstone (made out of Irish Blue Limestone).

As you might be able to see there is an inscription in Gaelic. 

"Suaimhneas siorai so high as a n anamacha aisle"

I was interested as to what this meant... so once again... Google. Google Translate.

And this is what it said in English:

"This peace for their souls high nobility."

Just a little nugget of history for anyone who loves history or Irish. :D