Biographies of Our Forefathers

Alice Tinneny was the 5^th child and 4^th daughter of Patrick “Yankee Pat” Tinneny of Goladuff and Margaret Malloy of Renfrewshire, Scotland.  She was born in Greenock, Scotland on December 9, 1884.  She was baptized at Saint Mary’s Catholic Church, which is located at 14 Patrick Street in Greenock on December 12, 1884.  Her sponsor was Catherine Malloy who was probably a sister of her mother’s.

Alice was raised in the family home at 14 East Shaw Street in Greenock, Scotland.  She attended Saint Mary’s School and Church on Patrick Street while growing up in Greenock as did her brothers and sisters. 

Photo: Alice Tinneny

Seventeen days after her 16^th birthday, on December 27^th 1900, her sisters Margaret, Elizabeth, Rose and brothers Jim and Patrick along with their mother left Greenock and sailed to America.  They made the rough winter crossing of the Atlantic aboard the S.S. Sardinia.  According to Alice’s sister who told the story many years later, the tickets for each of the children for the passage cost their parents $100 each.  Alice, her mother and the rest of the children arrived in the port of New York aboard the Sardinian on Saturday, January 12, 1901.  It was a dreary cold winter day.  The family was met in New York by Alice’s oldest brother John and Alice’s Uncle Mike Sickinger, the husband of her Aunt Kate Tinneny. 

Her brother and Uncle took Margaret and the children by train from New York to the home that Alice’s father had rented at 306 Carson Street in the Manayunk section of Philadelphia.  No doubt Alice was pleased to see her father Patrick who had gone before Margaret Alice and the other children and traveled to Philadelphia from Greenock the previous June.  Likewise, her brother John and older sisters Kate and Mary Jane had been living in Philadelphia for some time before Alice her mother and the other children came to America in January 1901. 

Alice was raised in the rented house of her parents on Carson Street then in the home that her parents bought at nearby 182 Baldwin Street.  She attended Holy Family Church on Hermitage Street while growing up.  Like some of her sisters she probably left school to work in the textile mills along the Manayunk Canal. 

According to her sister Rose, Alice eloped with and married Cornelius Joseph Hart.  By the time that the 1910 Census was taken on the 19^th of April 1910 Alice and Cornelius had been married for three years. They were living at 128 Silverwood Street in Manayunk.  Cornelius was listed as 24 years old and as the head of the household.  The Census showed that he was born in Pennsylvania and that his parents were born in Ireland.  His profession is listed as Carpenter in an ironworks.  The Census further showed that Cornelius could read and write and that he was out of work only one week in 1909.  Alice was described in the Census as being 23 years old and Cornelius’s wife.  There are entries showing that she was married for three years at the time and that she had two children one of which, Isabella, was alive and about 10 months old.  Alice is listed as being born in Scotland.  Her father is described as being born in Ireland while her mother’s place of birth is listed as Scotland.  Alice is described as being able to read and write.  As mentioned earlier, the couple’s daughter Isabella is also listed on the Census.  Also, living in their home was my grandfather, James J. Tinneny, who was 22 years old and unmarried.  The reason that he was living with Alice and her family may have been due to in part to his mother’s somewhat negative ideas about James’ impending marriage to Gertrude Spence, however, that has not been confirmed.  

Alice and Cornelius had six and possibly seven children.  They were, Isabella, Cornelius Patrick, Margaret, John, Francis, Alice and possibly one other who would have been a twin of Margaret’s. 

Alice died March 10, 1937 in Philadelphia.  Cornelius died January 2, 1958 or 59 at the Roxborough Memorial Hospital in the Roxborough section of Philadelphia.  Both are buried along with their son John at Holy Sepulcher Cemetery in Philadelphia.