A 1908 Mystery in Limerick Ireland

Hanora Meaney (aged 14) Sarah King (13) Elizabeth Gleeson (14) Lily O’Dea (13) Frances Storey (13) Mary Kelly (13) Mary Quirke (13) Bridget Donoghue (17) Mary Ryan (14) and Jessie Smart (8) all died within a few days of each other at Mount St. Vincent's orphanage in Limerick Ireland in 1908.

The cause of death was given as food poisoning but it is unusual for so many to die of that, even back in 1908.

What really happened?

Dr. Pope, a lecturer at Mary Immaculate College (MIC), is hoping to find out what was the true cause of the deaths of those ten girls. She asks for help if you are a descendant or a relative of any of the families the girls belonged to. 

If you have information regarding the event, please contact Dr. Pope at Jennifer.pope@mic.ul.ie

Finding Answers to Old Family Mysteries

"Growing up, Lisa Smith shared a room with her grandmother Maurine Chaney Everette in the family’s home in California. Her grandmother, Smith said, was like a mother to her. She was there to cook and bandage scraped knees. But there were things she rarely talked about — her scar, details of her childhood spent in an orphanage in Oklahoma. When Maurine died in 1992, she took much of her past with her."

All Lisa knew of her grandmother's past was that Maurine grew up in an orphanage in Oklahoma, she'd been involved in a train accident, and she had a brother. Searching online quickly provided Lisa with clues and then to connections with new-found cousins.

From there she was able to find a newspaper story of the 1918 train accident in which Maurine's father, mother and baby sister were killed. Read the full story In search for lost relatives, Nebraska woman uncovers truth about long-ago tragedy in the Omaha World Herald