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FamilySearch. Mary Frances' Passport application. 1918. |
In October 1918, the Chilean Embassy in Washington DC sent a letter to Leon Canova, head of the US State Department's Mexican bureau on behalf of Alberto Yoacham, the Minister of Chile to Mexico and former head of affairs for the Chilean delegation in Washington DC. The letter sought to expedite the passport application for Mary Frances O'Brien (the kindly woman in the passport photo above). Mary Frances had been retained as a governess for Yoacham's child, and was set to move to Mexico City.
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Ancestry. US Passports. 1918. |
Mary Frances O'Brien was born in Boston, Massachusetts in January 1866. When her passport application was submitted in October 1918, she was 52, living in New Orleans, Louisiana, and had been there since at least 1916. Leonie Humble, proprietress of the boarding house where Mary Frances was living in New Orleans, provided a statement in support of her application. Mary Frances noted she had never married.
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Ancestry. US Passports. 1918. |
The letter and application notes that Mary Frances would join the family at the Chilean legation in Mexico City, and also travel to Chile and Argentina. It is unclear from this record how Mary Frances met the Minister, but she was likely hired to serve as the governess for the minister's son, Alberto Jr. Perhaps she was retained to teach him English.
According to the New Orleans passenger lists, the Yoacham family arrived in New Orleans on 10 October 1918. Alberto married Carmen Saldias, the daughter of the Argentine minister to Bolivia in January 1914.
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Ancestry. New Orleans passenger list. Oct 1918. |
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Moline Dispatch. 12 Apr 1911. |
Alberto Sr's story reminds me of another government official I've featured on the blog, Francisco Suastegui, the Mexican commercial attaché sent to Washington DC in 1925.
In July 1919, Mary Frances traveled to New Orleans through the border crossing at Laredo, Texas. It is unclear if she later followed the family in 1921 when Alberto Sr. was given the post to serve as Chile's minister to Canada. Her time in Mexico City would have been a tumultuous one. 1918 into 1919 overlaps with the global influenza pandemic (Spanish flu) and the Mexican revolutionary period.
Down the rabbit hole
How did I stumble onto Mary Frances' passport application and how if at all does she factor into my O'Brien search? While looking on FTDNA at matches in common with my Dad's kit and his first cousin Michael, I saw a 10 cM match in JJ O'Brien. This person has 125 matches in common with my Dad, and also had linked a family tree. Working backward on his O'Brien line I landed on the parents of Mary Frances, John O'Brien and Mary Daley. Our match is descended from Mary Frances' younger brother.
John was born in Ireland in 1833 and moved to Boston in 1864 via Queenstown, now Cobh in County Cork. He died in 1896, and his wife Mary died in 1910. In the 1900 US Census, Mary Frances was in Boston working as a school teacher. By 1910, Mary Frances is listed as a public school teacher, still in Boston. Mary Frances visited Queenstown in the summer of 1901, sailing to Boston on the S.S. New England on 30 August 1901 (see the Boston emigration record on FamilySearch).
Following her governess work, Mary Frances returned to New Orleans in 1926, and appears in the Orleans Parish voting records on FamilySearch. In 1939 she was living at 1416 1/2 Canal Street. In the 1935 voting records, she is listed as living at 719 Camp Street, working as a lady's companion for Mrs. Charles Murray. Catherine Rirdon Murray was a native of Ireland, and died in March 1937. Three years earlier, Mary Frances was working as a lady's companion for Carrie Berlin at 741 Camp Street.
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FamilySearch. Orleans voting records. |
The Camp Street address is not far from where my great-grandfather Harry O'Brien lived when he was in New Orleans. This is a city that has featured regularly in posts on the blog, and the references to New Orleans caught my attention when looking at Mary Frances' passport application.
It does not appear that Mary Frances ever had children. I'm not certain our O'Briens even connect to this branch, but her story seemed like a fascinating one to follow. Mary Frances was a daughter of Irish immigrants, lived a life of service through public education and care giving, and traveled the world.