McALLISTER, Jemima ¹

   Other names for Jemima were GIBSON, Jemima ⁴ and McALLASTOR, Mima.²

  General Notes:

The 1891 census for Auchinleck recorded Jemima McAllister, daughter of James and (later evidence testifies) Agnes, living at 152 Common Loch. Jemima was recorded as aged 10 years, a scholar, and had been born in Auchinleck.

Mima McAllastor [sic] was recorded by the 1901 census living with her family in Auchinleck Ayrshire where she had been born. She was recorded as 19 years of age and was a domestic servant.

On 12 July 1902 Jemima McAllister sailed on board the SS Carthaginian from Glasgow for New York in steerage with her mother, her brother and three sisters. They arrived at the port of New York on July 24 1902. Jemima McAllister was recorded in the ship's manifest as a single woman of 19 years of age. Her occupation was noted as 'domestic'. To the questions about whether she could read or write the answer was 'yes' to both. Her nationality was 'Scotch' and her last residence Auchinleck. The manifest records that her final destination was Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and that she had a ticket for that destination, paid for by her mother. She declared herself to be in possession of no money. She had never been in the USA before and was going to join a brother 'Thomas McAllister 631 South Avenue, Media Park, Philadelphia'. She stated that she had not been in prison nor supported by charity, she was a polygamist, she was not under contract to labour in the USA, she was not deformed or crippled but in good health mentally and physically.

The 1910 U.S. Census for Worcester County in Massachusetts recorded Jemima Gibson living at Pleasant Stree West in the town of Warren. She lived with her mother and two younger sisters: Janet, and Bella, and her brother in law Archibald Ramsay and his daughter Agnes. Jemima was recorded as 27 years old and a single woman. She was a white woman of Scots-English descent who had immigrated to the U.S. in 1892 (inaccurate as we now know). She spoke English, could read and write, and worked, as her sisters did, as an inspector of cloth at a cotton mill, without having had any days out of work during 1909. ^{1 2 4}