I have included everything that is currently known about Maggie Madigan. I have contacted the researcher and he thinks that my grandfather, who was born in County Kerry, is not related to Maggie’s family. I am still working on researching this. Maggie was born on August 11, 1890 and was from a town called Askeaton in county Lymerick, Ireland. She was 21 and traveling in 3rd class with Bertha and Daniel Moran and also a gentleman by the name of Patrick Ryan. I don’t know the ages of the Moran’s or Patrick. The Moran’s had already been to New York and Daniel was a police officer there. They were visiting Ireland and convinced Maggie to come back with them. All we know is that Patrick and Daniel got Bertha and Maggie up on deck at about 1:30 AM and we think they got into Lifeboat 15. Daniel and Patrick of course stayed aboard and died. Maggie settled in Troy, New York There is a writer name of Craig Faris who is writing a book, “The Speed of Light”. One of the characters in the book is Maggie. He wrote to me: “that’s what my book is filled with, the little footnotes of history. The book is called “The Speed Of Light” and only one third of it deals with Mattie and what happen in 1911/1912. When researching the novel (this is my first and perhaps my last) I was looking for a young woman (around 21) from Ireland or Scotland that got on-board at Queenstown and was initially reported as dead. Well, Maggie Madigan fit all of that criteria, but I couldn’t find anything about her until I was several chapters into writing the book. When I met Robert Bracken in 1996, I asked him to read the chapters I had written and he suggested that I leave my fictional character as is because it worked so well into the story. That’s when I decided to include what I had learned about the real Maggie into the story as well as an additional character that Mattie befriends. You see Mattie is suppose to be from Glasgow, Scotland, but she lives and works in Belfast, Ireland when she meets Adam David Conrad (Connie) who is a steel worker at Harland & Wolff. Mattie and Connie are fictious, but everyone else is real. (Story line of fictional character details edited out, by Author’s request Craig Faris) So, that’s how I got interested is this young woman from Ireland! ” I never met my grandfather. He was kick in the shoulder and died. Maggie is from Ireland, and survived. I am looking for my roots. That is what I know. Frank W. Madigan
Later From: Craig Faris — I have discovered a few more details about Maggie Madigan, but it’s not much. She had a sister, named Mary who came over to America later. Apparently Maggie married once she arrived in Troy, NY and had at least one child. But both her husband and her child apparently died very early. This may have been a result of the great flu epidemic in 1918 and would go along way toward explaining both deaths. But, we have no way of knowing that for sure since we don’t have her husband’s last name. There is evidence that Maggie raised Mary’s children for her. At least that’s what Bob Bracken was told by Maggie’s niece when he visited her in Ireland in 1996. Oh, by the way, Daniel Moran was 27 and was the brother of Bertha Moran 32. Patrick Ryan was also 32 and may have come along because of Bertha or Maggie. We just don’t know!