N.Y. grave of 1st Ellis Island immigrant gets marker

[October 13, 2008]  NEW YORK (AP) -- The New York grave of an Irish woman who was the first immigrant to pass through Ellis Island has been marked with a Celtic cross.

Clergy members joined Annie Moore's descendants and admirers Saturday in a Queens Cemetery. She died 80 years ago, but her unmarked grave was discovered only two years ago.

Moore was 17 when she arrived in New York from County Cork in 1892. The Irish consul general in New York says she is a symbol for the hundreds of thousands of Irish who settled in New York.

Ellis Island was the gateway to America for more than 12 million immigrants. As many as 5,000 people a day passed through the processing center at its peak in the early 1900s.

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Information from: Daily News, http://www.nydailynews.com/

[Associated Press]

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