Three Costello Sisters

Hi there,

My gt-gt-gt grandmother was Ann(e) Costello, (b. 1824, Roscommon) and she had two sisters, Mary & Elizabeth.

My first record of her is her marriage to Andrew Egan (9 April 1849) in St Peter Catholic Church, Jersey City, New Jersey, USA.

She appears in the 1850 New Jersey census - according to this she cannot read or write.

A family bible with Ann's name on the front (but filled in by her husband) mentions two sisters.  One of them, Mary Moran, died 20 June 1853 and was buried in New Jersey.

Ann emigrated from USA to Melbourne, Australia with her husband, children and her own sister Elizabeth Costello in 1855.  She died on the 13th December 1855 on board the "Black Sea" off the Cape of Good Hope, presumably in childbirth (as her daughter was born on the same day).  The daughter's birth (and death) was registered in Melbourne but not Anne's death unfortunately as that might have given me her parents' names.  I have also tried the Victoria Marine Indexes but no luck.

Elizabeth died four years later, unmarried, in a hospital in Melbourne.  She was born about 1829 in Roscommon.  Unfortunately, her death was registered by a fellow patient who knew very little about her, so again I do not have the parents' names.

I don't know anything else about Ann, such as when she came to America or on what ship.  I have a photo which is reputed to be of her and she looks like an old lady even though she was only 31 when she died.

If anyone has any suggestions to help me track down any further information about these three sisters, I would be very grateful,

Kind regards

Nicola Davies - New Zealand