In June of 2002, I was fortunate enough to visit The Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland, Ohio to see the Titanic Artifact Exhibit.

Upon entering the exhibit, everyone was given a reproduction of the White Star Lines ticket to "board the Titanic". Across the top of the ticket was the name of a passenger who sailed on that fateful voyage and the class in which this person sailed, First, Second, or Third. On my ticket, read the name, Margaret "Maggie" Madigan, Third Class Passenger.

Having read about the fate of most third class passengers, I felt certain that Maggie was undoubtedly a lost soul. The exhibit itself was for me, very moving. To see the personal effects of people who were full of life and looking forward to a new life in a new country, was at times overwhelming to me. I openly wept.

The walking tour could take up to 3 or 4 hours depending on how long it took you to view and comprehend what you were seeing and reading, as every room had on the surrounding walls bits of trivia concerning either passengers, crew, or the ship itself.

At the end of the tour, on the last wall, was a list of every passenger and crew member, declaring if that person were lost or saved. Much to my surprise, Margaret "Maggie" Madigan was saved!

As I was driving home, I kept repeating Maggie Madigans name over and over to myself, thinking what a strong name it was and how courageous she must have been at 21 years old. A few days later, I searched the internet and decided I just had to know all about this woman and what had happened to her after she came to the United States. I also read books, but none with much biography about Maggie Madigan. It seems she had disappeared into obscurity, taking with her, a most tragic story.

I found the Madigan Genealogy site and a posting from a Michael Madigan of Newfoundland, stating that he was Maggie's great great nephew. At first, I felt it was tongue-in-cheek, but still felt compelled to write to him, as I had searched hundreds of sites, each one ending at a blank wall.

Unfortunately for my search, it was a joke, but the end result was that I had made a wonderful friend with whom I've shared many cultural exchanges in the form of Michael's music and articles about Newfoundland, and "Odds and Ends" about Ohio.

Through our correspondence, Michael, who is a member of "The Sharecroppers Trio", was inspired to write a song, titled, "Maggie Madigan, Titanic Survivor". The Trio also recorded it on their 3rd CD of wonderful folk music from Newfoundland, called 'The Home Boys'.

http://www.thesharecroppers.net/

I, along with Michael's daughter Kerri, who is also mentioned on the introduction of the Maggie Song, and has an interest in the story, have become good friends as well. 

Both Michael and myself have given interview's to the news media, via newspaper articles, radio interview's, magazine articles, all telling our story and asking for any information about Margaret "Maggie" Madigan.

My search has taken me to many parts of the world, making lasting friendships. And Michael's song and The Sharecroppers music has found it's way across the Atlantic as well.

These people have graciously provided me with what little information I have learned thus far.

These facts are not 100% certain, but for now they are all that I have.

Margaret "Maggie" Madigan was born, August 11, 1891 in Askeaton, County Limerick, Ireland.

Maggie Madigan was a third class passenger being saved onboard lifeboat #15.

Sometime after arriving in New York, Maggie married a man named Al Hart, they had a child, and both died in the Flu Epidemic in 1918.

There is a listing for a Patrick J O'Shea living in Queens, NY
on the 1930 census. He was a policemen. His wife is named Margaret. They married in 1918 when both were age 27. Margaret was born in "Irish Free State" and immigrated in 1912. She became a citizen at some point. They lived on 68th Street. 
Albert, her son, died as a teenager but might have been alive as late as 1930.

It is my fondest wish to know where Maggie lived, where she died, how many children she may have had, and anything more about this woman, undaunted, fighting for survival it seems, most of her life.  

Maggie Madigan, though unknown to us, lives in the hearts of many a stranger. So the question still remains after almost 2 years of searching...
Whatever happened to Margaret "Maggie" Madigan.

CONTACT INFORMATION

      Karen Sue Thomas  

P.S. I also want to add that the mike madigan mentioned in Karen's information found out about a year later that his great grandfather John Madigan was in fact born in Askeaton Ireland he died in 1904 at age 60yrs, so maybe mike himself could be related to Maggie Madigan??

if anyone can help us in this search for information please do not hesitate to contact either Karen, Kasey153@aol.com

or

Mike Madigan mike_madigan@yahoo.com

 

 

MAGGIE MADIGAN

  ~An Irish Immigrant's dream "unfulfilled"~

    It was August 11, 1890 in the small Co. Limerick village of Askeaton, Ireland. On this bright sunny
Irish day a third child and second daughter was born to laborer James Madigan and his wife Margaret (née Duggan). They named their daughter Margaret and shebecame Maggie to family and friends in Askeaton. She had a much older brother, Simon (born in 1878), and a sister, Mary, who was three years older than Maggie.
  The family lived frugally on Church Street in the village. Maggie spent her early years living the life
of a typical Irish peasant with church and family the focus of her life. The family's life was forever
altered when her beloved sister, Mary, emigrated to America in 1904 at the age of 19. She was suddenly
alone, as her older brother, Simon, had a family of his own by then and her parents were very advanced in years. She decided she would join her sister in America as soon as the necessary money could be
secured. James Madigan died about 1910 and Maggie received money from her sister Mary to sail for
America. Simon, the ever-protective elder brother, would not allow her to sail until he had found others
from the Askeaton area who would watch over Maggie on her trip to America.
     In early 1912, the opportunity came when Daniel Moran, a New York City policeman, and his sister
Bridget (Bertha), returned to settle the estate of their father, who owned a small farm in Toomdeely
North, townland adjoining Askeaton. They were returning to the New York City region with a friend,
Patrick Ryan, a cattle dealer from Toomdeely, who was emigrating to New York City at age 32. The threesome were well known to Simon and he entrusted Maggie's care to them. The group, including Maggie, secured accommodations on the small White Star liner Cymric. However, due to the British coal strike, Cymric, like so many other small liners, was taken from service and
its passengers were transferred to other White Star liners. The foursome from Askeaton were given
accommodations on the luxurious Titanic, due to begin its maiden voyage on April 10 in Southampton and pick up passengers at Queenstown in Ireland on April 11,1912.
     The night prior to Titanic's sailing, the foursome lodged at the McDonnell rooming house at The
Beach in Queenstown. The morning of the 11th of April, the group from Askeaton joined scores of other Irish immigrants at Mass in St. Colman's Cathedral and then made their way to the Deepwater Quay, where they would board the tender "America" and be ferried out to the
Titanic, moored off Roches Point. Maggie's tragic adventure had begun.
    On the half-hour trip to the Titanic on the America, Eugene Daly, an Irishman from Athlone in
County Westmeath, played the soulful Erin's Lament on his bagpipes and Maggie found herself nostalgically wondering if she would ever again see her cherished homeland or her aged mother. Once aboard Titanic, Daniel and Patrick separated from Bertha and Maggie to
find their quarters. Daniel and Patrick were berthed in the bow with the other single men and Bertha and Maggie were given accommodations in the stern area of the ship with the other single women. The voyage was relaxing but largely uneventful, with most of their
time spent in the third class general room aft on Titanic's C deck.
    Maggie and Bertha had retired early Sunday evening, April 14, and were asleep when Titanic had
her fateful brush with the iceberg off Newfoundland. Having a cabin so deep within the ship, they felt the collision much more vividly than the first and secondclass passengers with accommodations on higher decks. They were actually jolted awake by the collision and roused from their sleep by the commotion in the hallway outside their cabin. Confused and frightened,
Maggie and Bertha were soon joined by Daniel and Patrick who hustled them to the third class promenade area where they luckily managed to climb to the boat
deck with many other steerage passengers, after having been held back by crewmen for a period of time.
     Having ascended to the boat deck at the stern of Titanic, Maggie and her friends found Father Thomas R.D. Byles, an English priest from Ongar, Essex, ministering to and consoling many of Titanic's
steerage passengers, reciting prayers and trying to calm them as attempts were being made to place the
women and children in the last of the lifeboats, notably numbers 13, 14, 15 and 16. Daniel and Patrick
fought to place Maggie and Bertha into lifeboat 15 shortly before it descended from the boat deck. After
narrowly avoiding crushing boat 13, which had become entangled under it as it descended from the boat deck, the overcrowded lifeboat hit the water and barely
stayed afloat that long cold night. Sadly they never saw Daniel and Patrick again.
    Following her rescue from the freezing Atlantic by the Carpathia, Maggie was removed to St. Vincent's
Hospital for a few days recovery from her ordeal. She then went to live with her married sister, Mary
Horgan, in Manhattan. After working as a domestic in New York City for a year, Maggie met a Swiss-Irishman named Alphonsus Hardt, who had been born in New York
City of a Swiss father and an Irish mother. After a short romance, the couple were married in St.
Bernard's Catholic Church on West Fourteenth Street on December 28, 1913 and lived nearby in a tenement at 30 West Nineteenth Street in Manhattan. Al Hardt worked
hard as a longshoreman on the docks to support Maggie and a son, Alfred, born in 1915.
     Maggie suffered two monumental tragedies during the 1920's. Her beloved son, Alfred - her only natural child - drowned tragically about 1925 and her husband,
Alphonsus, died suddenly in September of 1928 at age 50. Maggie was again alone and went back to work as a domestic.
    A few years later, she was introduced to Thomas O'Shea, whose mother was a cousin of Patrick Ryan from Toomdeely townland near Askeaton in Ireland. They were married shortly after. Tragedy again struck Maggie when Mary Madigan Horgan died suddenly. Maggie was devastated at the loss of her sister, but took on a maternal role in the raising of Mary's two teenaged
children during the 1930's. She evidently led a very normal and uneventful life with husband, Thomas
O'Shea, until his untimely death at the age of 48 in June of 1951. Maggie, at age 60, was alone once more.
    She survived by domestic household work and whatever other menial work she could find as a
laundress, seamstress or day laborer. After years of toil for her basic survival, Maggie Madigan died on
December 14, 1968 at the age of 78. She had lost everything dear to her in life - two husbands, her
only son, her beloved sister. As inauspicious as she had been in life, so she is in death - buried with her
two husbands in a single unmarked grave in Calvary Cemetery in Woodside, Queens, New York.
     I wish to acknowledge Ellen Madigan Lenihan, late of Askeaton, Co. Limerick, Ireland and daughter of
Simon Madigan, Maggie's brother, who is the family source for most of Maggie's story. Though she never
met her Aunt Maggie, she told me that she felt a closeness to her through her letters home. Though
Maggie never returned to Ireland after leaving her homeland on the Titanic in 1912, she faithfully kept
in touch through numerous letters over the years.
   Maggie Madigan must join the list of Titanic survivors whose lives were never fulfilled. The
optimism and hopes of a cheerful Irish colleen in 1912 never blossomed in America as anticipated, but instead seems to have been doomed during every phase of her life.

( Text Courtesy of Robert L. Bracken)

Date of Publication: Saturday 1st January 2005

The latest update on Maggie Madigan

From Karen

13/06/05

 After months of anxiety and frustration, I made the decision to go to Calvary Cemetery in Queens, New York, with my own small tribute, awaiting a decision from those in authority at the cemetery as to placing a permanent marker at Maggie Madigans grave.

Bob Bracken, the treasure of the Titanic International Society, lives in New Jersey, generously, and graciously offered to escort my sister and I to Calvary Cemetery when my plans were made.
So the date, Wednesday, May 25th was set.
My sister and I would drive to New Jersey, Tuesday, May 24th and meet with Bob Bracken and he would drive us to Woodside Queens, NY, the following day.

After weeks of pondering what I would place at Maggie's grave that could be considered "temporary/permanent" and be a tribute to her memory, I found a wrought iron garden cross that was perfect to place in the ground.
I commissioned a local trophy maker to make a plaque with all of the information that would be a on a gravestone.
I then asked a dear friend Phil Moore to find a way to affix the plaque to the cross.
I must confess that when I saw the beauty of his work, I wept. It was perfect.
It is inscribed:

MARGARET "MAGGIE" MADIGAN
HARDT - O'SHEA
TITANIC SURVIVOR
AUG.11, 1890 - DEC. 14, 1968
"IN THE HEARTS OF STRANGERS"

The drive to New Jersey was filled with great anticipation, delight and anxiety.
I was determined not to leave the cemetery without leaving Maggie's name at her grave.


We stopped at the office of the cemetery to speak with the person in charge.
Unfortunately he was gone for the day. We did speak to a gentleman and asked if he could locate Maggie's son Alfred Hardt, (in Bob's research he had found that young Alfred drowned at an early age) as we would like to have paid our respects to him as well.
Calvary Cemetery has not come into the 21st century as yet, so all of their records are on microfilm.
We decided while they were searching, we would go on to Maggie's grave and pay tribute to her.



We went back to the cemetery office and after an hour or so, and extra help with the search for Alfred, it was determined that he had not been buried in Calvary Cemetery.
This was disappointing to both Bob and myself, but understandably, being aware that in that time period, he could have been buried in a "Potter's Field" site somewhere else in New York.

Bob wanted to surprise me as he had intended to drive to a location on 19th street in Manhattan where he knew Maggie and her first husband lived.
But as we approached we realized the building had been torn down and a parking lot was at that site.
But I was still happy to be in Maggie's "old neighborhood", knowing with all certainty that she had walked on these very streets to work as a domestic, or to shop for groceries or perhaps a leisurely stroll.

The drive back to New Jersey was fill with contentment and joy.

Karen