Queenstown → New York · 31 August–9 September 1883
A favored candidate—not a proved crossing
Was Catherine the young woman aboard?
The City of Berlin passenger list includes a fourteen-year-old Irish servant recorded as Kate McPadden. She left Queenstown and reached New York on 9 September 1883.
The uncommon surname, Irish origin, timing and later Bridgeport life make her the leading candidate for Catherine—even though Michael and Mary’s daughter was sixteen years and one month old. The list gives no parents, Irish townland, destination contact or other unique fact that closes the identity.
If this was Catherine, the crossing took her away from home as her family faced a death and a birth. That possibility makes the next few dates especially poignant; the passenger’s identity remains unproved.
Original manifest; passenger-to-person identity favored but unproved“Kate McPadden, 14, servant, Ireland” is documented. Michael and Mary’s Catherine was sixteen. The passenger’s identity as this Catherine remains open.
