Of the five members of a party that included the Burke family, who left Castlebar, Ireland, to come to America, there was only one aboard the Carpathia when it crept up to its dock in New York. She was Annie Kelly, 16 years old. Her sister is Mrs. Ellen McHugh, 5509 Cornell avenue, Chicago. The others were lost. The first and second cabin women were before them and they had to hang back until these had left the ship. When it came their turn no lifeboats remained. They retreated into the deserted salons and waited with the men until the ship sank.

The victims:

Mrs. Margaret Burke

Miss May Burke

Miss Catherine Burke

John Burke

They were coming to Chicago to live with their uncle, Martin McDermott, 6440 North Robey street.

The first to telephone to the White Star office in Chicago was Ellen McHugh, who is a domestic. She is alone in America. For weeks, she had been planning the many good times she would have when her sister and other relatives came to Chicago.

“What have you heard?”, asked Ellen McHugh over the telephone. Ivan Holmstrom answered her, “Nothing new.”

“Nothing new” meant that the first report that included the Burkes among those lost was true and that of all the colonists from Castlebar, only 16-year-old Annie Kelly would come to Chicago.

Chicago Daily Journal, Friday, April 19, 1912, p. 4, c. 3