Content of the Record:
Below is a detail fro the passenger list of the s.s. Nevada which arrived in New York City on 26 Sep 1870. I examined the first and last pages to learn that although the port of departure was Liverpool, there was an intermediate stop in "Queenstown" Ireland and that Kate Burke was listed among these Steerage passengers of Queenstown.
She is listed as an 18 year old female. I do not yet understand the significance of the 4th column which for other people gives marital status. Note that she may be traveling in the company of the Kearney family, whose father does not appear to be with the family on the ship. Recall that the witness to the marriage of Kate's daughter will be a Samuel Kearney. I do not recognize other names at this time.
Conclusions and Speculations:
Catharine Burke is not an unusual Irish name. It was easy to find a dozen Catherine Burkes in the census and passenger lists of this period. However, the age of this Kate is right on and the only one to be this close. It is reasonable to tentatively assume this is our Kate. None of the other potential passenger lists give more meaningful information that this one, so there is no grave error if I am wrong. The big disappointment so far for all of Kate's records is that they do not give the Irish county of her birth. That would be the key to opening up her earlier history.
Queenstown is now known as Cobh on the Cork coast of Ireland. From 1848 to 1850, over 6 million Irish immigrated to the USA, 2.5 million of them from Cobh. It was a major port of departure for the Irish.