A Genealogical History of the Life of Eliza O’Conor Sloane

Caroline Stetson

BA candidate in History and Anthropology, Fordham University

Section 1: Introduction

        This paper will follow the life of Eliza O’Conor Sloane through different stages of life, supported by documentation from census records, newspaper archives, and the Thomas O’Conor collection. It will attempt to compile a biographical study of an under-documented life in the O’Conor family, to contextualize her life and familial relationships. Her family’s status as Irish-Americans also set them apart from the norm, creating an unusual dynamic that allowed Eliza O’Conor Sloane to travel and sometimes control her own finances. This only occurred with the permission of men, who granted her autonomy and access to wealth that enabled her to travel, spend, and inherit money. Eliza O’Conor Sloane’s economic status and family dynamic enabled her to have a greater degree of financial and personal freedom than the typical wealthy woman in upper-class America in the 19th century.

Section 2: Birth Dates and Childhood

Eliza O’Conor Sloane’s early life is minimally documented, including her birth date. In her shared grave with her husband, his birth date in 1820 is recorded, and Eliza’s is left blank.^[1] Census records also record this varyingly, indicating Eliza may have been uncertain of her age, or errors in census recording.^[2] All census records of Eliza exist between 1850 and 1880, as censuses before 1850 only name the head of household; other household members are tallied in categories of age and sex.^[3] The table below tracks Eliza and her husband’s reported age and corresponding birth year from each census.

        Above Figure: Chart of Ages for Eliza O’Conor Sloane and Christian Shear Sloane. Source: 1850-1880 U.S. Census.^[4] 

We know from a genealogy of the O’Conor family that Eliza’s mother, Margaret O’Conor, died on January 30th, 1816, at 28.^[5] The only women recorded are mothers; neither Eliza’s name nor her birth is mentioned. However, this rules out the majority of birthdates from the census, leaving only two potential dates: 1815 or 1811. If these are correct, Eliza’s mother died when she was under 5 years old, possibly contributing to the lack of information. The range of error for Eliza’s census data varies by 20 years, while her husband’s varies by three years. Census errors are common, but women’s information is often viewed as less important in both genealogies and censuses, leading to less accurate or no information at all.

Eliza’s childhood suffers from a similar lack of information, and can only be constructed speculatively, as archival records focus on the 1840s, during Eliza’s adult life. In Thomas O’Conor’s files, he had saved a prospectus of Young Ladies Academy of the Sacred Heart, with an address at 412 Houstoun Street, advertising a trilingual Catholic girls' school in English, French, and Spanish.^[6] Eliza did not attend the school because she was an adult in the 1840s, when the school was located in Manhattan. However, we can infer that her father wanted his children to be educated with a Catholic and multicultural influence.

Section 3: Archival Material

3.1 Budget

On the back of a large speech draft discussing the United Irishmen in New York politics, Thomas O’Conor wrote a short four-line poem and listed a list of accounts of payments for the month of August, with no year listed. Many entries are labeled TOC (Thomas O’Conor) or COC (Charles O’Conor), likely indicating which man paid for the cost.^[7] Eliza is listed as a budget item, with 37 ½ dollars.^[8] Eliza is paid more than servants or market women, indicating that she has quite a bit to spend. In the American Victorian period, it was acceptable for a woman to have her own pocket money, or "pin money" to spend, but not access to full household finances.^[9] Charles O’Connor, as an adult male, has enough power over his family’s finances to be written in his father’s account records as authorizing payments, whereas Eliza is authorized as a payment herself.

Above image: List of Budget Items by Thomas O’Conor. Source: O'Conor, Thomas. "Comment of TOC on Emmet's Resignation." Box 2, Folder 4. Thomas O'Connor Collection. American Irish Historical Society, New York, NY.

3.2 1841 Trip

The letter, centering on Eliza, is a recollection of a riverboat trip she and her father took up the Hudson River. Thomas O’Conor’s described New York tourists escaping the city to a countryside boarding house, where he enjoyed socializing with the hosts and guests. 71-year-old Thomas went on a morning hike by himself, and got quickly overwhelmed, and lost for seven hours.^[10]  Upon his return, he found that the guests had begun "a kind of general search and inquiry" to look for him.^[11] He described his gratitude at the seach party, and return: “I was overpowered and struck dumb. My daughter was in tears."^[12]  This episode exemplifies the relationship between Eliza and her father. He opens this letter with this description: "In company with a daughter, and more under her care than she under mine."^[13] This reversal of traditional parent-child roles indicates that Eliza may have functioned as a maternal caretaker in the home, having lost her mother. She could have been raised by a governess, but censuses before 1850 do not show whether there were staff in the home. American wives and Irish domestic workers often experienced tensions because Irish working women demonstrated greater financial independence, which, if Eliza had been raised with, would have influenced her own independence.^[14] Even if raised by servants, as an adult, Eliza would become another female caretaker in the home. Eliza likely rallied vacationers to begin looking for her missing father, needing to take care of him on her own. Eliza seems to have had more independence because of her upbringing, either with independent female influence or being put in the role of caretaker.

3.3  1842 Trip

The following year, Eliza took a trip from Philadelphia to Baltimore, then to Winchester, Virginia, and finally to a town called Red Sulphur Springs, according to the postmark on her second letter home. Sulphur spring retreats were a common treatment for a number of pulmonary diseases and tuberculosis.^[15] They were also vacations, as Eliza describes parties, balls, and horseback riding.^[16] In Eliza’s second letter, she informs her father that her brother Charles surprised her at the resort, “looking as bright as a May mum having just arrived on foot having walked twenty six miles.”^[17] It indicates that they had a very close relationship. In 1842, she seemed to still be living with her father because she gave him instructions on caring for her orange tree and rose bush.^[18] Despite likely having gardeners, it appears to be Eliza’s hobby, common in urban Victorian homes.^[19] She appears to be traveling with Christian Sloane, briefly mentioned as "Christn."^[20] Eliza stamped her second letter with a gothic letter "O" for O’Conor, indicating she either had not changed her name and was courting, or was unmarried.^[21] Around this time, courtship saw a decline in parental supervision in courtship.^[22] This likely did not extend to unchaperoned trips out of state, so they were more likely newlyweds. Regardless, the couple was not traveling alone; their companions appeared to be other Irish-Americans. One loaned a book to Eliza about Irish revolutions, prompting her to write: "I fear I am more Irish than American when I feel my blood boil reading this account of the wrongs and injustices."^[23] Traveling with other Irish Republicans demonstrates that her social circle was comprised of other upper-class Irish people.

Above image: Seal on Letter from Eliza to Thomas O’Conor. Source:  O'Conor Sloane, Eliza. "TOC: Eliza O'Conor Sloan to TOC 1842." 19 August, 1842. Box 2, Folder 18. Thomas O'Connor Collection. American Irish Historical Society, New York, NY.  

3.4 Where’s Eliza?

        This document is undated and contains only speculative information about its context, but it was written in Thomas O’Conor’s handwriting, with his hand tremor more pronounced than in his typical writing. Unlike many of his works, it is not a political work but rather seems like poetry. It begins with this: "Where is Eliza? Where is Eliza! where is she not?"^[24] It then contrasts several contradictory statements about where Eliza is, referencing the place's condition. For example: "She is in yonder three story brick houses, she is in the shanty off the side of the road"^[25] It then goes on to contrast various simple values: "she is young, she is old; she is merry, she is sad; she is all life, she looks like death."^[26] The literary antithesis employed here reflects Thomas O’Conor’s view of his daughter as complex and multifaceted. It highlights a number of possible paths for Eliza’s future, and views her as a unique and complex person, who could do anything and be anywhere: "Eliza has the qualifications of ubiquity."^[27] The poem seems to reinforce Eliza's individual and complex identity.

Above image: Where’s Eliza? Source: O'Conor, Thomas. "TOC: MS Where's Eliza."  Box 1, Folder 19. Thomas O'Connor Collection. American Irish Historical Society, New York, NY.

At least eight comparisons reference wealth or status. For example: "she pays thousands to milliners and [ill.]; she makes shirts for a shilling each."^[28] The Victorian American upper-class defined itself by self-created wealth rather than peerage.^[29] The O’Conor family status came from its roots to Hiberno-Norman nobility.^[30] This did not fit into a Protestant American upper class.^[31] The preoccupation with wealth reflects Thomas O’Conors anxieties of his family’s contradictory role in the American class system as wealthy Irish people.

This may be a poem prompted by Eliza and Christian’s engagement, as it uses imagery of women's roles in courtship, for example: “she is betrothed, she is deserted; she flaunts in lace, she shivers in rags; she danced at the Jackson ball, she is ogled in a cellar.”^[32] Thomas O’Conor refers to Eliza as the daughter of a gardener and the "beloved" of a millionaire, although at first he wrote "fiancée."^[33] Thomas O’Connor was not a gardener, nor poor, and Christian Sloane seemed to socialize in the same circle as the O’Conors. This line may instead indicate Thomas’s feelings of not being adequately integrated into the American class system as an immigrant. These contradictions create the confusion of a father who feels unprepared to let his daughter enter a class system he feels outside of. Even as he expresses his anxieties, he still expresses a deep amount of care for Eliza and her individual identity, emphasized by the final line: "she is remembered, she is forgotten; she is in love — Eliza is in heaven."^[34] 

Section 4: Later life

In the 1850 census, Christian and Eliza Sloane, their son, and Thomas O’Conor, now retired, are all listed under the entry for Charles O’Conor.^[35] By 1855, the Sloans kept their own household, with a family of 6 Irish boarders, Mr. and Mrs. B. Dillon.^[36] Taking boarders indicates that Eliza and Christian needed extra economic support. When a woman could not work outside the home, she could support her household by taking on boarders, doing laundry, or selling produce, which gave women autonomy over household finances.^[37] However, Christian was employed as a broker in the 1855 census.^[38] A woman who was independent of men could control finances, but when a man was involved in the home, his financial authority superseded the woman’s.^[39] In 1855, the Sloanes also employed two Irish-born servants.^[40] In the same year, Charles O’Conor usually had five employees for domestic and gardening labor for a household of the same size, showing what a wealthier household could afford.^[41] 

        By later years, they would be more financially stable, and in 1870, they would take in 12-year-old Julia Pardow Mullany. Julia Pardow Mullany was the great-granddaughter of George Pardow, a co-founder of Thomas O’Conor’s newspaper, the Truth Teller.^[42] George Pardow also sponsored Charles O’Conor’s education for his legal career.^[43] In one interview, Charles called her his adoptive daughter.^[44] However, she would be listed in the 1880 census as Charles O’Conor’s niece.^[45] Conflicting with this, Charles’ will indicates that his sister was the one who officially adopted her.^[46] Eliza inherits two-thirds of his estate, passing to her sons if she dies before her brother, and the remaining one-third to Julia, irrespective of Eliza’s status. Typically, any man in the household could supersede a woman’s financial independence, so it is an unusual choice to skip over Eliza’s sons, giving the money to their widowed mother and adoptive sister directly.^[47] This independence is authorized only by Charles, but grants them economic independence rather than passing on the duty of their care to another person.

        In a codicil to the will, Charles also gave Julia all his property, employees, papers, and chattels in the state of Massachusetts.^[48] This gave her the house he built, lived, and died in, in Nantucket, called Sea Cliff.^[49]  Shortly after Charles O’Conor’s death, Julia Mullany married, so the house could have been for her husband, but no provisions were made for this.^[50] Despite many opportunities to delegate authority to other men, the will explicitly provides property in her name alone, to her heirs and assigns forever, making her the heir and head of the household.^[51]

        Little information is recorded about Eliza’s life after her brother’s death. She died November 19th, 1894, and was buried in Woodside, Queens.^[52] One must assume that she lived off her brother's inheritance until her death, and that anything she had would have passed to her sons. Her younger son, Thomas, was willed much of his uncle and grandfather’s writings and books. These would have passed through his daughter, Alice Mary Sloane Anderson, and into the collections of the American Irish Historical Society.

Section 5: Methodology

Research for this paper used online genealogical databases, such as FamilySearch, to access U.S. and New York census records by searching for names within approximate dates and locations, supplemented by information about parent-child and sibling relationships from websites such as Find a Grave. Digitized records from the New York Times and Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror were also used to fill in information, although they primarily focused on the legal career and death of Charles O’Conor. The American Irish Historical Society’s records primarily focus on Thomas O’Conor’s legal and political writings, making his daughter’s life underdocumented in this collection. Census research was only successful between 1850 and 1880, due to the lack of identifying information in early censuses, and within those years, the information was often inaccurate. The underdocumentation and lack of accuracy is a result of women’s history being viewed as less important to record and save.

Section 6: Conclusion

        Much of Eliza O’Conor Sloane’s life remains unknown due to recordkeeping that neglects information about women’s lives. However, based on available information, this paper attempts to identify areas where Eliza deviated from and conformed to the norms of American society as a wealthy Irish-American woman. Eliza was raised without a mother, possibly influenced by financially independent Irish domestic workers, as well as a father and brother who cultivated her independence. These factors set her apart from the norm and enabled her to enjoy greater social and financial freedom than a typical Victorian American woman. Wealthy American women did not typically have family dynamics that enabled them to travel or manage their own finances. Poorer women in the Victorian period did not have the advantages of travel, inheritance, or domestic servants to facilitate these freedoms. It is only through access to wealth, permitted by the men, that Eliza O’Conor Sloane was able to live her life independently, unlike other women in different economic or familial situations.

Author Bio:

Caroline Stetson is currently an undergraduate student at Fordham University, Rose Hill, majoring in History and Anthropology. Her research interests include genealogical studies and Medieval history.

Bibliography^[c][d][e]

Bigelow, John. “Some Recollections of Charles O’Conor.” Century Magazine, 1885. https://www.victorianvoices.net/ARTICLES/CENTURY/Century1885A/C1885A-CharlesOConor.pdf.

Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/178397477/christian_shear-sloane: accessed May 6, 2026), memorial page for Christian Shear Sloane (6 Dec 1820–22 Sep 1880), Find a Grave Memorial ID 178397477, citing Calvary Cemetery, Woodside, Queens County, New York, USA; Maintained by Mashey Niblick (contributor 49226210).

Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/178397504/eliza_margaret-sloane: accessed May 6, 2026), memorial page for Eliza Margaret O'Conor Sloane (1810–19 Nov 1894), Find a Grave Memorial ID 178397504, citing Calvary Cemetery, Woodside, Queens County, New York, USA; Maintained by Mashey Niblick (contributor 49226210).

Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/92621425/samuel_miller-breckinridge: accessed May 6, 2026), memorial page for Judge Samuel Miller Breckinridge (3 Nov 1828–28 May 1891), Find a Grave Memorial ID 92621425, citing Bellefontaine Cemetery, Saint Louis, City of St. Louis, Missouri, USA; Maintained by Saratoga (contributor 46965279).

Folbre, Nancy, and Marjorie Abel. “Women’s Work and Women’s Households: Gender Bias in the U.S. Census.” Social Research 56, no. 3 (1989): 545–69. https://doi.org/10.2307/40970556.

Gaskell, S. Martin. “Gardens for the Working Class: Victorian Practical Pleasure.” Victorian Studies 23, no. 4 (1980): 479–501. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3826832.

Howe, Daniel Walker. “American Victorianism as a Culture.” American Quarterly 27, no. 5 (1975): 507–32. https://doi.org/10.2307/2712438.

“Letters from the Virginia Springs: No. 2.” Medical examiner (Philadelphia, Pa.) vol. 3,33 (1840): 518-521.

Lystra, Karen. “Blurring Separate Spheres: Sex-Role Boundaries and Behavior.” In Searching the Heart, 121–56. Oxford University Press, 1992.

———. “Testing Romantic Love: Victorian Courtship Rituals and the Dramas of Private Life.” In Searching the Heart. Oxford University Press, 1992.

"Massachusetts, State Vital Records, 1638-1927", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N7GY-KYY : Wed May 22 23:08:51 UTC 2024), Entry for Mann and Parker Mann, 1885.

"Massachusetts, State Vital Records, 1638-1927", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NWBJ-926 : Thu Mar 05 17:11:31 UTC 2026), Entry for Parker Mann and Julia P. Mullany, 29 June 1884.

"New York, State Census, 1855", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K67C-JD5 : Wed Jul 10 22:56:13 UTC 2024), Entry for Charles O'Conor and Cornelia L O'Conor, 1855.

"New York, State Census, 1855", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K67C-V9D : Fri Jan 17 01:30:08 UTC 2025), Entry for Christian S Sloane and Eliza M Sloane, 1855.

O'Conor, Charles. "Genealogical Chart of O'Conors with notes by Charles O'Conor." Box 1, Folder 3. Thomas O'Conor Collection. American Irish Historical Society, New York, NY.

O'Conor Sloane, Eliza. "Eliza O'Conor Sloan to TOC 1842. 19 July, 1842. Box 2, Folder 17." Thomas O'Connor Collection. American Irish Historical Society, New York, NY.

O'Conor Sloane, Eliza. "TOC: Eliza O'Conor Sloan to TOC 1842." 19 August, 1842. Box 2, Folder 18. Thomas O'Connor Collection. American Irish Historical Society, New York, NY.

O'Conor, Thomas. "Comment of TOC on Emmet's Resignation." Box 2, Folder 4. Thomas O'Connor Collection. American Irish Historical Society, New York, NY.

O'Conor, Thomas. "MS of TOC's Summer Vacation, 1841." July, 1841. Box 1, Folder 11. Thomas O'Connor Collection. American Irish Historical Society, New York, NY.

O'Conor, Thomas. "TOC: MS Where's Eliza."  Box 1, Folder 19. Thomas O'Connor Collection. American Irish Historical Society, New York, NY.

"Prospectus Young Ladies Academy of the Sacred Heart." Box 1, Folder 26. Thomas O'Conor Collection. American Irish Historical Society, New York, NY.

Moriarty, Thomas F. “The ‘Truth Teller’ and Irish Americana of the 1820’S.” Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia 75, no. 1 (1964): 39–52. https://doi.org/10.2307/44210566.

Mütter, Thomas D. “The Salt Sulphur Springs, Monroe County, Virginia.” Google Books, 2026. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Nkg3AQAAMAAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=red+sulphur+springs+virginia&ots=uI1KNg40ki&sig=rDrBkv_HcuX_oCj_qXuUEmL3iq4#v=onepage&q=burke&f=false.

Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror. “Al Smith Has Precedent in Nantucket Man.” August 2, 1927. https://nantucketatheneum.veridiansoftware.com/?a=d&d=NIRM19270820-01.2.27&srpos=3&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-charles+o%E2%80%99conor------.

Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror. “Charles O’Conor’s Will.” May 31, 1884. https://nantucketatheneum.veridiansoftware.com/?a=d&d=NIRM18840531-01.1.2&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------.

Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror. “Died.” February 19, 1910. https://nantucketatheneum.veridiansoftware.com/?a=d&d=NIRM19100219-01.2.4&srpos=4&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-parker+mann------.

Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror. “Married.” December 23, 1911. https://nantucketatheneum.veridiansoftware.com/?a=d&d=NIRM19111223-01.2.7&srpos=1&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-parker+mann------.

New York Times. “Death of Charles O’Conor; the End of a Long and Brilliant Career. His Last Illness at Nantucket-Record of His Life-the Body Brought to New-York.” Nyti.ms, May 14, 1884. https://nyti.ms/41KSvlM.

Palumbo-DeSimone, Christine. “‘Kitchen Queens’ and ‘Tributary Housekeepers’: Irish Servant Stories in Nineteenth-Century Women’s Magazine Fiction.” Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature 33, no. 2 (2014): 77–101. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43653326.

Sanborn, D.A. “Map of Town of Nantucket.” 100 ft. to an inch. Sanborn Map Company, 1923. https://nha.org/pdfs/sanbornmaps/1923/NantucketOct1923Sheet21.pdf.

"United States, Census, 1850", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MCBZ-9ML : Tue Oct 28 16:28:13 UTC 2025), Entry for Charles O Conner and Thomas O Conner, 1850.

"United States, Census, 1860", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MCH9-3NX : Mon Jul 08 14:36:03 UTC 2024), Entry for Christian S Sloan and Eliza M Sloan, 1860.

"United States, Census, 1870", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M8J1-WVJ : Wed Mar 06 23:54:29 UTC 2024), Entry for Christian and Eliza Sloane, 1870.

"United States, Census, 1870", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M8V1-SKH : Thu Mar 05 17:29:42 UTC 2026), Entry for Christian S Sloan and Elizabeth M Sloan, 1870.

"United States, Census, 1880", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MZ61-79J : Fri Jan 17 16:39:28 UTC 2025), Entry for Charles O'Connor and Eliza Sloane, 1880.

no images

A Genealogical History of the Life of Eliza O’Conor Sloane

Caroline Stetson

BA candidate in History and Anthropology, Fordham University

Section 1: Introduction

        This paper will follow the life of Eliza O’Conor Sloane through different stages of life, supported by documentation from census records, newspaper archives, and the Thomas O’Conor collection. It will attempt to compile a biographical study of an under-documented life in the O’Conor family, to contextualize her life and familial relationships. Her family’s status as Irish-Americans also set them apart from the norm, creating an unusual dynamic that allowed Eliza O’Conor Sloane to travel and sometimes control her own finances. This only occurred with the permission of men, who granted her autonomy and access to wealth that enabled her to travel, spend, and inherit money. Eliza O’Conor Sloane’s economic status and family dynamic enabled her to have a greater degree of financial and personal freedom than the typical wealthy woman in upper-class America in the 19th century.

Section 2: Birth Dates and Childhood

Eliza O’Conor Sloane’s early life is minimally documented, including her birth date. In her shared grave with her husband, his birth date in 1820 is recorded, and Eliza’s is left blank.^[53] Census records also record this varyingly, indicating Eliza may have been uncertain of her age, or errors in census recording.^[54] All census records of Eliza exist between 1850 and 1880, as censuses before 1850 only name the head of household; other household members are tallied in categories of age and sex.^[55] The table below tracks Eliza and her husband’s reported age and corresponding birth year from each census.

        Above Figure: Chart of Ages for Eliza O’Conor Sloane and Christian Shear Sloane. Source: 1850-1880 U.S. Census.^[56] 

We know from a genealogy of the O’Conor family that Eliza’s mother, Margaret O’Conor, died on January 30th, 1816, at 28.^[57] The only women recorded are mothers; neither Eliza’s name nor her birth is mentioned. However, this rules out the majority of birthdates from the census, leaving only two potential dates: 1815 or 1811. If these are correct, Eliza’s mother died when she was under 5 years old, possibly contributing to the lack of information. The range of error for Eliza’s census data varies by 20 years, while her husband’s varies by three years. Census errors are common, but women’s information is often viewed as less important in both genealogies and censuses, leading to less accurate or no information at all.

Eliza’s childhood suffers from a similar lack of information, and can only be constructed speculatively, as archival records focus on the 1840s, during Eliza’s adult life. In Thomas O’Conor’s files, he had saved a prospectus of Young Ladies Academy of the Sacred Heart, with an address at 412 Houstoun Street, advertising a trilingual Catholic girls' school in English, French, and Spanish.^[58] Eliza did not attend the school because she was an adult in the 1840s, when the school was located in Manhattan. However, we can infer that her father wanted his children to be educated with a Catholic and multicultural influence.

Section 3: Archival Material

3.1 Budget

On the back of a large speech draft discussing the United Irishmen in New York politics, Thomas O’Conor wrote a short four-line poem and listed a list of accounts of payments for the month of August, with no year listed. Many entries are labeled TOC (Thomas O’Conor) or COC (Charles O’Conor), likely indicating which man paid for the cost.^[59] Eliza is listed as a budget item, with 37 ½ dollars.^[60] Eliza is paid more than servants or market women, indicating that she has quite a bit to spend. In the American Victorian period, it was acceptable for a woman to have her own pocket money, or "pin money" to spend, but not access to full household finances.^[61] Charles O’Connor, as an adult male, has enough power over his family’s finances to be written in his father’s account records as authorizing payments, whereas Eliza is authorized as a payment herself.

3.2 1841 Trip

The letter, centering on Eliza, is a recollection of a riverboat trip she and her father took up the Hudson River. Thomas O’Conor’s described New York tourists escaping the city to a countryside boarding house, where he enjoyed socializing with the hosts and guests. 71-year-old Thomas went on a morning hike by himself, and got quickly overwhelmed, and lost for seven hours.^[62]  Upon his return, he found that the guests had begun "a kind of general search and inquiry" to look for him.^[63] He described his gratitude at the seach party, and return: “I was overpowered and struck dumb. My daughter was in tears."^[64]  This episode exemplifies the relationship between Eliza and her father. He opens this letter with this description: "In company with a daughter, and more under her care than she under mine."^[65] This reversal of traditional parent-child roles indicates that Eliza may have functioned as a maternal caretaker in the home, having lost her mother. She could have been raised by a governess, but censuses before 1850 do not show whether there were staff in the home. American wives and Irish domestic workers often experienced tensions because Irish working women demonstrated greater financial independence, which, if Eliza had been raised with, would have influenced her own independence.^[66] Even if raised by servants, as an adult, Eliza would become another female caretaker in the home. Eliza likely rallied vacationers to begin looking for her missing father, needing to take care of him on her own. Eliza seems to have had more independence because of her upbringing, either with independent female influence or being put in the role of caretaker.

3.3  1842 Trip

The following year, Eliza took a trip from Philadelphia to Baltimore, then to Winchester, Virginia, and finally to a town called Red Sulphur Springs, according to the postmark on her second letter home. Sulphur spring retreats were a common treatment for a number of pulmonary diseases and tuberculosis.^[67] They were also vacations, as Eliza describes parties, balls, and horseback riding.^[68] In Eliza’s second letter, she informs her father that her brother Charles surprised her at the resort, “looking as bright as a May mum having just arrived on foot having walked twenty six miles.”^[69] It indicates that they had a very close relationship. In 1842, she seemed to still be living with her father because she gave him instructions on caring for her orange tree and rose bush.^[70] Despite likely having gardeners, it appears to be Eliza’s hobby, common in urban Victorian homes.^[71] She appears to be traveling with Christian Sloane, briefly mentioned as "Christn."^[72] Eliza stamped her second letter with a gothic letter "O" for O’Conor, indicating she either had not changed her name and was courting, or was unmarried.^[73] Around this time, courtship saw a decline in parental supervision in courtship.^[74] This likely did not extend to unchaperoned trips out of state, so they were more likely newlyweds. Regardless, the couple was not traveling alone; their companions appeared to be other Irish-Americans. One loaned a book to Eliza about Irish revolutions, prompting her to write: "I fear I am more Irish than American when I feel my blood boil reading this account of the wrongs and injustices."^[75] Traveling with other Irish Republicans demonstrates that her social circle was comprised of other upper-class Irish people.

3.4 Where’s Eliza?

        This document is undated and contains only speculative information about its context, but it was written in Thomas O’Conor’s handwriting, with his hand tremor more pronounced than in his typical writing. Unlike many of his works, it is not a political work but rather seems like poetry. It begins with this: "Where is Eliza? Where is Eliza! where is she not?"^[76] It then contrasts several contradictory statements about where Eliza is, referencing the place's condition. For example: "She is in yonder three story brick houses, she is in the shanty off the side of the road"^[77] It then goes on to contrast various simple values: "she is young, she is old; she is merry, she is sad; she is all life, she looks like death."^[78] The literary antithesis employed here reflects Thomas O’Conor’s view of his daughter as complex and multifaceted. It highlights a number of possible paths for Eliza’s future, and views her as a unique and complex person, who could do anything and be anywhere: "Eliza has the qualifications of ubiquity."^[79] The poem seems to reinforce Eliza's individual and complex identity.

At least eight comparisons reference wealth or status. For example: "she pays thousands to milliners and [ill.]; she makes shirts for a shilling each."^[80] The Victorian American upper-class defined itself by self-created wealth rather than peerage.^[81] The O’Conor family status came from its roots to Hiberno-Norman nobility.^[82] This did not fit into a Protestant American upper class.^[83] The preoccupation with wealth reflects Thomas O’Conors anxieties of his family’s contradictory role in the American class system as wealthy Irish people.

This may be a poem prompted by Eliza and Christian’s engagement, as it uses imagery of women's roles in courtship, for example: “she is betrothed, she is deserted; she flaunts in lace, she shivers in rags; she danced at the Jackson ball, she is ogled in a cellar.”^[84] Thomas O’Conor refers to Eliza as the daughter of a gardener and the "beloved" of a millionaire, although at first he wrote "fiancée."^[85] Thomas O’Connor was not a gardener, nor poor, and Christian Sloane seemed to socialize in the same circle as the O’Conors. This line may instead indicate Thomas’s feelings of not being adequately integrated into the American class system as an immigrant. These contradictions create the confusion of a father who feels unprepared to let his daughter enter a class system he feels outside of. Even as he expresses his anxieties, he still expresses a deep amount of care for Eliza and her individual identity, emphasized by the final line: "she is remembered, she is forgotten; she is in love — Eliza is in heaven."^[86] 

Section 4: Later life

In the 1850 census, Christian and Eliza Sloane, their son, and Thomas O’Conor, now retired, are all listed under the entry for Charles O’Conor.^[87] By 1855, the Sloans kept their own household, with a family of 6 Irish boarders, Mr. and Mrs. B. Dillon.^[88] Taking boarders indicates that Eliza and Christian needed extra economic support. When a woman could not work outside the home, she could support her household by taking on boarders, doing laundry, or selling produce, which gave women autonomy over household finances.^[89] However, Christian was employed as a broker in the 1855 census.^[90] A woman who was independent of men could control finances, but when a man was involved in the home, his financial authority superseded the woman’s.^[91] In 1855, the Sloanes also employed two Irish-born servants.^[92] In the same year, Charles O’Conor usually had five employees for domestic and gardening labor for a household of the same size, showing what a wealthier household could afford.^[93] 

        By later years, they would be more financially stable, and in 1870, they would take in 12-year-old Julia Pardow Mullany. Julia Pardow Mullany was the great-granddaughter of George Pardow, a co-founder of Thomas O’Conor’s newspaper, the Truth Teller.^[94] George Pardow also sponsored Charles O’Conor’s education for his legal career.^[95] In one interview, Charles called her his adoptive daughter.^[96] However, she would be listed in the 1880 census as Charles O’Conor’s niece.^[97] Conflicting with this, Charles’ will indicates that his sister was the one who officially adopted her.^[98] Eliza inherits two-thirds of his estate, passing to her sons if she dies before her brother, and the remaining one-third to Julia, irrespective of Eliza’s status. Typically, any man in the household could supersede a woman’s financial independence, so it is an unusual choice to skip over Eliza’s sons, giving the money to their widowed mother and adoptive sister directly.^[99] This independence is authorized only by Charles, but grants them economic independence rather than passing on the duty of their care to another person.

        In a codicil to the will, Charles also gave Julia all his property, employees, papers, and chattels in the state of Massachusetts.^[100] This gave her the house he built, lived, and died in, in Nantucket, called Sea Cliff.^[101]  Shortly after Charles O’Conor’s death, Julia Mullany married, so the house could have been for her husband, but no provisions were made for this.^[102] Despite many opportunities to delegate authority to other men, the will explicitly provides property in her name alone, to her heirs and assigns forever, making her the heir and head of the household.^[103]

        Little information is recorded about Eliza’s life after her brother’s death. She died November 19th, 1894, and was buried in Woodside, Queens.^[104] One must assume that she lived off her brother's inheritance until her death, and that anything she had would have passed to her sons. Her younger son, Thomas, was willed much of his uncle and grandfather’s writings and books. These would have passed through his daughter, Alice Mary Sloane Anderson, and into the collections of the American Irish Historical Society.

Section 5: Methodology

Research for this paper used online genealogical databases, such as FamilySearch, to access U.S. and New York census records by searching for names within approximate dates and locations, supplemented by information about parent-child and sibling relationships from websites such as Find a Grave. Digitized records from the New York Times and Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror were also used to fill in information, although they primarily focused on the legal career and death of Charles O’Conor. The American Irish Historical Society’s records primarily focus on Thomas O’Conor’s legal and political writings, making his daughter’s life underdocumented in this collection. Census research was only successful between 1850 and 1880, due to the lack of identifying information in early censuses, and within those years, the information was often inaccurate. The underdocumentation and lack of accuracy is a result of women’s history being viewed as less important to record and save.

Section 6: Conclusion

        Much of Eliza O’Conor Sloane’s life remains unknown due to recordkeeping that neglects information about women’s lives. However, based on available information, this paper attempts to identify areas where Eliza deviated from and conformed to the norms of American society as a wealthy Irish-American woman. Eliza was raised without a mother, possibly influenced by financially independent Irish domestic workers, as well as a father and brother who cultivated her independence. These factors set her apart from the norm and enabled her to enjoy greater social and financial freedom than a typical Victorian American woman. Wealthy American women did not typically have family dynamics that enabled them to travel or manage their own finances. Poorer women in the Victorian period did not have the advantages of travel, inheritance, or domestic servants to facilitate these freedoms. It is only through access to wealth, permitted by the men, that Eliza O’Conor Sloane was able to live her life independently, unlike other women in different economic or familial situations.

Author Bio:

Caroline Stetson is currently an undergraduate student at Fordham University, Rose Hill, majoring in History and Anthropology. Her research interests include genealogical studies and Medieval history.

Bibliography

Bigelow, John. “Some Recollections of Charles O’Conor.” Century Magazine, 1885. https://www.victorianvoices.net/ARTICLES/CENTURY/Century1885A/C1885A-CharlesOConor.pdf.

Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/178397477/christian_shear-sloane: accessed May 6, 2026), memorial page for Christian Shear Sloane (6 Dec 1820–22 Sep 1880), Find a Grave Memorial ID 178397477, citing Calvary Cemetery, Woodside, Queens County, New York, USA; Maintained by Mashey Niblick (contributor 49226210).

Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/178397504/eliza_margaret-sloane: accessed May 6, 2026), memorial page for Eliza Margaret O'Conor Sloane (1810–19 Nov 1894), Find a Grave Memorial ID 178397504, citing Calvary Cemetery, Woodside, Queens County, New York, USA; Maintained by Mashey Niblick (contributor 49226210).

Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/92621425/samuel_miller-breckinridge: accessed May 6, 2026), memorial page for Judge Samuel Miller Breckinridge (3 Nov 1828–28 May 1891), Find a Grave Memorial ID 92621425, citing Bellefontaine Cemetery, Saint Louis, City of St. Louis, Missouri, USA; Maintained by Saratoga (contributor 46965279).

Folbre, Nancy, and Marjorie Abel. “Women’s Work and Women’s Households: Gender Bias in the U.S. Census.” Social Research 56, no. 3 (1989): 545–69. https://doi.org/10.2307/40970556.

Gaskell, S. Martin. “Gardens for the Working Class: Victorian Practical Pleasure.” Victorian Studies 23, no. 4 (1980): 479–501. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3826832.

Howe, Daniel Walker. “American Victorianism as a Culture.” American Quarterly 27, no. 5 (1975): 507–32. https://doi.org/10.2307/2712438.

“Letters from the Virginia Springs: No. 2.” Medical examiner (Philadelphia, Pa.) vol. 3,33 (1840): 518-521.

Lystra, Karen. “Blurring Separate Spheres: Sex-Role Boundaries and Behavior.” In Searching the Heart, 121–56. Oxford University Press, 1992.

———. “Testing Romantic Love: Victorian Courtship Rituals and the Dramas of Private Life.” In Searching the Heart. Oxford University Press, 1992.

"Massachusetts, State Vital Records, 1638-1927", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N7GY-KYY : Wed May 22 23:08:51 UTC 2024), Entry for Mann and Parker Mann, 1885.

"Massachusetts, State Vital Records, 1638-1927", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NWBJ-926 : Thu Mar 05 17:11:31 UTC 2026), Entry for Parker Mann and Julia P. Mullany, 29 June 1884.

"New York, State Census, 1855", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K67C-JD5 : Wed Jul 10 22:56:13 UTC 2024), Entry for Charles O'Conor and Cornelia L O'Conor, 1855.

"New York, State Census, 1855", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K67C-V9D : Fri Jan 17 01:30:08 UTC 2025), Entry for Christian S Sloane and Eliza M Sloane, 1855.

O'Conor, Charles. "Genealogical Chart of O'Conors with notes by Charles O'Conor." Box 1, Folder 3. Thomas O'Conor Collection. American Irish Historical Society, New York, NY.

O'Conor Sloane, Eliza. "Eliza O'Conor Sloan to TOC 1842. 19 July, 1842. Box 2, Folder 17." Thomas O'Connor Collection. American Irish Historical Society, New York, NY.

O'Conor Sloane, Eliza. "TOC: Eliza O'Conor Sloan to TOC 1842." 19 August, 1842. Box 2, Folder 18. Thomas O'Connor Collection. American Irish Historical Society, New York, NY.

O'Conor, Thomas. "Comment of TOC on Emmet's Resignation." Box 2, Folder 4. Thomas O'Connor Collection. American Irish Historical Society, New York, NY.

O'Conor, Thomas. "MS of TOC's Summer Vacation, 1841." July, 1841. Box 1, Folder 11. Thomas O'Connor Collection. American Irish Historical Society, New York, NY.

O'Conor, Thomas. "TOC: MS Where's Eliza."  Box 1, Folder 19. Thomas O'Connor Collection. American Irish Historical Society, New York, NY.

"Prospectus Young Ladies Academy of the Sacred Heart." Box 1, Folder 26. Thomas O'Conor Collection. American Irish Historical Society, New York, NY.

Moriarty, Thomas F. “The ‘Truth Teller’ and Irish Americana of the 1820’S.” Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia 75, no. 1 (1964): 39–52. https://doi.org/10.2307/44210566.

Mütter, Thomas D. “The Salt Sulphur Springs, Monroe County, Virginia.” Google Books, 2026. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Nkg3AQAAMAAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=red+sulphur+springs+virginia&ots=uI1KNg40ki&sig=rDrBkv_HcuX_oCj_qXuUEmL3iq4#v=onepage&q=burke&f=false.

Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror. “Al Smith Has Precedent in Nantucket Man.” August 2, 1927. https://nantucketatheneum.veridiansoftware.com/?a=d&d=NIRM19270820-01.2.27&srpos=3&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-charles+o%E2%80%99conor------.

Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror. “Charles O’Conor’s Will.” May 31, 1884. https://nantucketatheneum.veridiansoftware.com/?a=d&d=NIRM18840531-01.1.2&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------.

Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror. “Died.” February 19, 1910. https://nantucketatheneum.veridiansoftware.com/?a=d&d=NIRM19100219-01.2.4&srpos=4&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-parker+mann------.

Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror. “Married.” December 23, 1911. https://nantucketatheneum.veridiansoftware.com/?a=d&d=NIRM19111223-01.2.7&srpos=1&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-parker+mann------.

New York Times. “Death of Charles O’Conor; the End of a Long and Brilliant Career. His Last Illness at Nantucket-Record of His Life-the Body Brought to New-York.” Nyti.ms, May 14, 1884. https://nyti.ms/41KSvlM.

Palumbo-DeSimone, Christine. “‘Kitchen Queens’ and ‘Tributary Housekeepers’: Irish Servant Stories in Nineteenth-Century Women’s Magazine Fiction.” Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature 33, no. 2 (2014): 77–101. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43653326.

Sanborn, D.A. “Map of Town of Nantucket.” 100 ft. to an inch. Sanborn Map Company, 1923. https://nha.org/pdfs/sanbornmaps/1923/NantucketOct1923Sheet21.pdf.

"United States, Census, 1850", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MCBZ-9ML : Tue Oct 28 16:28:13 UTC 2025), Entry for Charles O Conner and Thomas O Conner, 1850.

"United States, Census, 1860", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MCH9-3NX : Mon Jul 08 14:36:03 UTC 2024), Entry for Christian S Sloan and Eliza M Sloan, 1860.

"United States, Census, 1870", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M8J1-WVJ : Wed Mar 06 23:54:29 UTC 2024), Entry for Christian and Eliza Sloane, 1870.

"United States, Census, 1870", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M8V1-SKH : Thu Mar 05 17:29:42 UTC 2026), Entry for Christian S Sloan and Elizabeth M Sloan, 1870.

"United States, Census, 1880", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MZ61-79J : Fri Jan 17 16:39:28 UTC 2025), Entry for Charles O'Connor and Eliza Sloane, 1880.