Rigmaiden Family History Blog: Catherine's children: Mary Ann or Annie

Mary, or Annie as she was later known, was born in 1881 and first appears in the known paper trail in the 1881 census living in Etna Street, Old Swan, Liverpool with her mother Kate

 Regmarsden [sic] and sister, also Kate. Mary is two months old  and sister Kate is six. It is likely that she was known as Annie after she emigrated to the United States to distinguish her from her brother William's wife, also called Mary with whom she initially lived in Jersey City.


As yet no birth record has been found, probably because we don't know her father's name for sure.

An illegitimate child, Elizabeth Rigmaiden, was born in 1877 and died a few months later. The birth is registered in St Oswald's registers  and with the registrar, by the mother Catherine Rigmaiden. The father's name is left blank.

It would seem that Annie is the Mary Ann Rigmaiden, aged eleven, who is on the ship's passenger lists for 1892, travelling alone to New York. We know through family stories that she initially stayed with her half-brother, William Rigmaiden, and his wife in Jesey City, then was adopted by a neighbour and took the name Francis Mary Jones under which name she was married, in 1901, to Edgar Lutier. In the 1910 US Federal census they have three children: George (8); Margaret (7) and Grace (2) and they are still in Jersey City.


I have a list of Mary Ann's born in Liverpool in the first quarter of 1881 from the site UKBMD but they are too numerous to check. I have also examined the birth registers for St Oswald's Roman Catholic Church, Old Swan, Liverpool, where her sister Catherine was recorded but there is no Mary or Annie born in January 1880 or 1881. Annie Lutier's birthday is believed by her family descendants to be the 10th January 1880. Perhaps Annie wasn't registered, although this was required by law after 1875, or perhaps she appears under a different surname in another church. Her descendants in the United States are quite anxious to know more about her origins. I am hopeful that adoption records in the United States may reveal something.