On January 1, 1892, Annie Moore, a 17 year old girl from County Cork, Ireland, made headlines as the first immigrant to be processed at Ellis Island. She is honored by bronze statues in New York Harbor and in Cobh, County Cork, Ireland, and is cited in story and song. Her image will forever represent the millions who passed through Ellis Island in pursuit of the American dream, and is a symbol for immigrants of all nations that have contributed to the rich fabric of the United States.

On September 15, 2006, at a press conference held at the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, genealogist Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak corrected history by sharing with the world that the myth of Annie Moore’s life was incorrect, and revealed the true identity of Annie and her descendants. Megan’s genealogical detective work was aided by Brian Andersson, Commission of Records for the City of New York, and Patricia Sommerstein, grand-niece of Annie Moore, who produced documents leading to the discovery of the correct Annie and family.

The real Annie Moore lived a quiet life in New York City’s Lower East Side. As a contemporary and neighbor of Alfred E. Smith, Annie was a resident of the 4th Ward, a rough-and-tumble tenement seaport area. She married Joseph Augustus Schayer, a baker, and they had ten children, five who survived to adulthood, of which two have families today, and one whose whereabouts remains unknown.

Annie Moore also died quietly in New York City. Brian Andersson revealed to the world that Annie Moore's remains lie in an unmarked grave in Calvary Cemetery, Queens, New York, just a few miles from Ellis Island, along with 5 of her young children and one child of her friend -- a small plot covered with grass and, for the moment, nothing else. "We're going to rectify this," promised Commissioner Andersson who promptly donated $500 -- half of a reward offered and presented by Smolenyak Smolenyak as part of the hunt for Annie Moore -- to a fund that will pay for a headstone in Calvary Cemetery.

Since then, the descendant families along with supporters from the Irish American community across the country have been galvanized to begin the fund raising effort -- the Annie Moore Memorial Project -- to create an appropriate marker for the gravesite that was lost to history for eight decades but is now found again. The Annie Moore Memorial Project is a sponsored project of the Irish Cultural and Learning Foundation in Phoenix, Arizona.

Annie’s story is symbolic of the American immigrant story. As one guidebook says: "Annie Moore came to America bearing little more than her dreams; she stayed to help build a country enriched by diversity".