Anna Moran Burns was my great-great-grandmother on my mother’s side. Anna was born in Ireland.  She lived long before my time, so I never knew her. The picture above is the only one I have of her. With Anna is her granddaughter Mary Moseley. The face of Anna looks very similar to that of my grandfather, Edward Moseley.

Using facts I have gleaned from my genealogy research and with help of the AI Assistant Perplexity I have created this summary of Anna’s life.

Anna was born in October 1828 in Drum, Roscommon, Ireland.  In the 1830s Drum parish in County Roscommon was a rural agricultural community marked by traditional Irish life. Drum is just 4 miles from Athlone, and 60 miles west of Dublin. In the 1850s, Anna married Michael Byrne in Athlone. At the time, Michael was serving in the British 16th Foot infantry regiment, which was garrisoned in Athlone. Some time in the next decade Michael and Anna moved to the town of Castledermot in County Kildare, just south of Dublin.

Between 1848 and 1867, Anna and Michael had 7 children, one of whom was Catherine, my great-grandmother, born in 1865. In 1872 the entire Byrne family left Ireland and emigrated to Scipio (near Auburn), New York. In the U.S. they changed their surname from Byrne to Burns.

So why did they leave Ireland? I don’t know for sure, but here are some reasons why  many people were leaving Ireland in the 1870s:

• The aftermath of the Great Potato Famine (1845-1850), which led to ongoing economic distress and food insecurity.
• Limited job opportunities and a worsening economy.
• High rents, poor harvests and a lack of tenant rights.

Sounds pretty grim!

Scipio provided fertile soil and there were many successful farms there. The Burns farm was first in Scipio and later in Fleming, NY, both just South of Auburn.

Anna’s husband, Michael, died in 1888, and she moved to Auburn into the household of William Moseley and Anna’s daughter Catherine. She died in Auburn in 1902 at the age of 74.