Mary Grenaghan was born in Faulagh, Barnatra, County Mayo, Ireland, probably in August 1868, the daughter of John and Catherine Grenaghan (née Monohan, or Monaghan). Her family were farmers, and when her mother died, her father remarried.
She emigrated to the United States of America, but stated in either 1880 or 1886 in various official records. No definitive records have been found to substantiate either year of arrival.
She married Charles Hanus in Omaha, Nebraska, on the 28th June 1889, and settled in Jackson township, Crawford County, Iowa, where her husband had a farm. A number of her siblings were also farming in Iowa, including her brother, Michael.
In 1915, Mary and her husband decided to travel to Ireland for a holiday, and her brother, Michael Grenaghan decided to accompany them. Consequently, they booked third class passage on the May sailing of the
Lusitania.
Having left Iowa in early April, they arrived at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in New York in time to board the liner - with ticket number 168815 - for her scheduled 10.00 a.m. departure on May Day 1915. Like all the other passengers and crew, however, they then had to wait until 12.27 p.m. before the liner actually left harbour on what was to become her last ever voyage. This was because she had to load cargo and take on board passengers and crew from the Anchor Liner the S.S.
Cameronia which the British Admiralty had requisitioned as a troop ship at the end of April.
Six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, the Lusitania was torpedoed by the German submarine
U-20, twelve miles off The Old Head of Kinsale in southern Ireland and sank only eighteen minutes later. At that stage of her voyage, she was a mere twelve or fourteen hours away from her Liverpool home port and destination.
Both Mary and Charles Hanus died as a result of this enemy action. She was aged 46 years, although her age at the time was given as 37 years, and as neither of their bodies was ever recovered from the sea and identified later, neither has a known grave. Michael Grenaghan, however, was fortunate to survive.
In the initial list of those on board the Lusitania published by The Cunard Steam Ship Company in March 1915, their surname was correctly stated, however, in a revised list, dated February 1917, and now held at The Public Record Office in Richmond, Surrey, the couple’s surname is spelled as Hames, which is incorrect!
1900 U.S. Federal Census, 1905 Iowa State Census, 1910 U.S. Federal Census, Pennsylvania Passenger Lists 1800 – 1962, Cunard Records, Denison Review, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv D92/2/39, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.