Teresa Reilly

It's unclear when Teresa was born. She is not in the Breedogue & Ballinameen records from 1859-1880. The 1864 date is a wild guess. We do know the family lived on a farm in Tonroe [Kilnamanagh] in Co. Roscommon, and her father Owen died in 1873.

Teresa's Byrne cousins moved to West Orange, NJ, in the late 1860s. Then her older siblings Michael, Mary and Patrick moved to Orange, NJ, around 1882. Widowed mother Catherine brought siblings [??? farmer, age 30], Catherine and Eugene over on the Britannic on 5 June 1891.

Theresa joined the Sisters of Charity, taking the name Sister Catherine Jose. [The Order established itself in Ireland in 1848 and took over the Magdalen Asylum and laundry in Cork during the famine.] The 4 Nov 1891 ship manifest for the "Noorland" from Antwerp, Belgium to NY, lists Sister Therese Reilly from Ireland, age 28, sailing with a large group of Sisters and clergy.

For some reason Teresa is listed in the 1895 NJ Census, living with her mother and siblings at 123 High Street [St. John's property]. She is not with them in the 1900 census. By then she was with the Sisters of Charity.

"Aunt Tessie" spent most of her life teaching at St. Elizabeth's and living there in Convent Station, Morris County, NJ. She most likely died at "The Villa" in Florham Park.