Why leave one child behind?

[KitHannay]

Hi all,

Looking into someone's family history and have come across something curious. I have a family - the Wickhams. Father is Thomas and mother is Catherine. They were married in Roscommon, Ireland in the 1860s. They then had four children: Thomas (1868), Eliza (1872), Anne (1875) and Andrew (1877).

In 1883, I have a passenger arrival document into the US for Catherine and three of her children: Thomas, Eliza and Andrew. I assume husband Thomas was already in the US setting up and preparing for his family to join him.

But it seems as though 8-year-old Anne was left behind. Her parents had one final child, Margaret, in the US in 1887.

Matriarch Catherine died in 1893 and in 1899, then 24-year-old Anne emigrated to the US (I assume to her family?) She married a fellow-Irishman later that year. They had three children in America before moving back to Ireland and having a fourth here.

But my question is, why would her family have left her behind when they all went to the US? I suppose she could have been sick ad unable to travel? Would there have been other reasons?

[aghadowey]

She might have been ill (or just poorly from birth) or perhaps stayed with a relative (grandparent, childless aunt, etc.). Does the passenger manifest list name of nearest relative in home country?

[shellyesq]

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JXZQ-H65?lang=en

If this is her on the passenger list, she was going to join her father in Worcester, Mass.

The person above her on the passenger list was also going to Worcester, so it may be the Paul McLoughlin that she married about 6 months later.  https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N4C1-WKW?lang=en