Evelyn Casey, 129 Gaynore St., 14 years, 6 months - Irish. Went to work on 14th birthday cleaning harnesses in Borden Mills. Left because of no work and expects to learn weaving in Flint mill with a girl friend. At certificate office applying for certificate for second position. Location: Fall River, Massachusetts, June 17, 1916, Lewis W. Hine.

Shortly after the Civil War, Fall River, later to be justifiably called the "Spindle City," was the leading textile city in the country, and remained so until the 1920s. In the early 1870s, 15 new manufacturers and 22 mills were established in the city, causing a population boom of almost 20,000 more residents, mostly Irish and French-Canadian immigrants. Over 12,000 units of company housing were built, mostly three-story tenements known commonly as "triple deckers."

When I saw the top photo of Evelyn, it was her hat that caught my eye first, then her lovely Irish face. She looked spunky and full of optimism, and I wondered if she got the job she was applying for. But I ran into problems right away.

One of the most important keys to my search for the life of a child laborer is to find out when and where the person died. With that information, I can usually obtain the obituary, and thereby learn the names of the survivors, such as children or grandchildren. That's a big hurdle to cross when the subject is a girl, because without her married name, I have no idea what her name was when she died. Unfortunately, most states, including Massachusetts, do not post their marriage records on the Web. After finding Evelyn in the 1910 census, I ran into a brick wall. I assumed that if she didn't appear in the 1920 census, she either had died or married by then. So I tried a different approach. I contacted the Herald News, the newspaper in Fall River.

Reporter Marc Dion took an interest right away, and on April 6, 2008, Evelyn's picture was published, along with Dion's article, under in the headline: "Who Was Evelyn Casey?" He wrote, in part:

"A closer look at the pictures show that the edge of her hair ribbon is frayed, that her coat doesn't hang quite right and, though she is prosperous enough to wear a necklace, she also wears a blouse that looks like it's been worn and washed too many times. Evelyn Casey left history after that photograph, walked back into the mill yard, walked back into the tenement streets, waded back into Fall River's multi-tongued ethnic stew."

"Who was Evelyn Casey? That's the question ... that haunts Joe Manning. The Fall River Historical Society found one Evelyn Casey who seems like an almost perfect match for the girl in the photo. This Evelyn Casey was born around 1902, which would have made her the same age as the girl in the photograph. The Evelyn Casey of the city census is listed as having two addresses between 1910 and 1919. In 1910, she, her parents and six siblings lived at 52 Covel St. By 1919, they lived at 176 Horton St. There is no Gaynore Street in Fall River, or if there was, its name has not survived. But some other things about the Evelyn Casey of the census records go well with the girl in the photograph."

"There's the age, of course, but there's also the fact that the girl in the photograph was looking for work as a weaver in 1916. In 1919, records show an Evelyn Casey working as a weaver. The photograph's caption identifies Evelyn Casey as an Irish girl. Documents at the Historical Society say their Casey was second generation American, her grandparents having immigrated from Ireland."

"Evelyn Casey continued to be listed in city directories as a weaver living with her parents until 1922, when she may have married and taken her husband's last name. Are the Evelyn Casey in the photo and the Evelyn Casey in the records the same woman? It's a good bet, but there's probably someone out there who knows for sure. Do you remember Evelyn Casey?"