In November 2020, I began intensively researching one of my maternal Irish lines, the O’Keeffes. I wanted to learn more about the direct impact the potato famine of 1847 had on my family. During my studies, I made some incredible discoveries practically all in one night, one after another, that you can read through here -- Potato Famine: The Great Hunger That Forced My Irish Ancestors to Flee to America.
A few months later in May 2021, I followed up with this writeup on a grandson of my immigrant family -- William Thomas Murphy. This breakthrough helped me expand the search on the O’Keeffes here in the United States.
But now, it’s about time I head to ground zero for this family, or at least ground zero-adjacent. I have a research trip planned in the fall of 2023 to Ireland that will be entirely focused on the O’Keeffe branch of my ancestral tree. I’ll be diving deep into record groups held by all the major repositories in Dublin.
Kira D. Foltz, Dublin, Ireland, September 2019.
This won’t be your traditional heritage trek, as I won’t be visiting my ancestors’ village of origin, let alone the County of Cork, where that village is located. That will have to be on a future vacation! But the capital of Ireland, about 220 kilometers from where the O’Keeffes called home, is where the majority of the republic’s records are all kept, and where I’ll find more physical documents directly related to my family.
It might be a great time to mention that the “O” prefix in the surname, O'Keeffe, is wholly Irish, and while it is historically known to mean “grandson of,” there’s actually no hard & fast rule as to when a person might apply it or might drop it when recording or giving their name. So, in addition to keeping spelling changes in mind when researching this family (especially due to illiteracy), the further back in time we travel, the more variations we need to look for, including the Gaelic word for O’Keeffe, which is O Caoimh. When referring to Terence and his immediate family, I usually adhere to the spelling of Keeffe, which is how it was recorded in their local parish wedding and baptismal records.
I’m taking this moment to recap what I knew about Terence and his family back when I wrote my first two blogs about them, and also sharing what I’ve learned since, in the past two years, while the world has been virtually shutdown due to a global pandemic! This will lay a foundation for the discoveries to be made this fall during my boots-on-the-ground research.
What I Knew:
Terence Keeffe of Lismonihis and Anne Mead of Meadstown were married 25 January 1826 in Kildorrery Church (a catholic parish) in the county of Cork, Ireland. It can be estimated they were approximately 21 years and 18 years of age, respectively, placing their births near the turn of the century.
Kildorrery parish, marriage record of Terence Keeffe and Anne Mead, County Cork, Ireland, 25 Jan 1826.
According to baptismal records, they had 6 children together: Honora, Catharine, Arthur, Mary, Anne, and Margaret, spanning the years 1828 to 1843. Terence was named in Griffith’s Valuation (published in 1853) as being a resident in the civil parish of Farahy, leasing land, a house, and offices from Mrs. Eliza Bowen (“offices” were any sort of out building aside from the home).
Richard Griffith, Griffith's Valuation, civil parish of Farahy, County Cork, Ireland, household of Terence O'Keeffe, residence no. 15, published 1853.
While I originally thought Terence and some of his children may have permanently remained in Ireland, a notice he had posted in “The Boston Pilot” opened my eyes to the fact he had indeed also emigrated to the United States, at least by the spring of 1851, and was seeking reunification with his eldest daughter, Honora.
The Boston Pilot, 31 May 1851, post by Terence Keef seeking information on daughter Honora Keef.
I quickly then also learned of his death just two short years later in 1853 of Tuberculosis in Cumberland, Allegany County, Maryland and his burial at St. Patrick’s (Catholic) Church Cemetery.
Unknown photographer, inside of St. Patrick Church, Cumberland, Maryland, undated.
His daughter, Margaret (my 3rd great grandmother), was born 29 August 1843 in Lismonihis, baptized 19 June 1844 in Kildorrery, was the youngest of her siblings, married twice (first to Patrick Murphy, a papermaker, in 1863, and second to James Boyce, a boiler man, in 1868) at St. Joseph’s Cathedral in downtown Wheeling, West Virginia, gave birth to 10 children (1 died in infancy), died 11 March 1917, and was buried in Mt. Calvary Cemetery in Wheeling, West Virginia next to her second husband, James Boyce.
Ohio County, West Virginia, portion of marriage license for Margaret Keefe and Patrick Murphy containing permission by Ann Keefe, 10 Jun 1863.
Because her mother “gave her away” at her first wedding, I knew Anne (Meade) Keeffe had also travelled to the United States. So I could place Anne in Wheeling in 1863. When I discovered Terence’s burial at St. Patrick’s in Maryland via the FindAGrave website, I also saw an entry for a Mrs. A. O. Keefe. The gravesite details simply listed “died at Wheeling, West Virginia” with no source citation or further relationships connected to her (the memorial has since been updated to reflect the plot as belonging to Mrs. Anne Mead O’Keefe, spouse of Terrence O’Keefe). This gave me hope that the entire Keeffe family had emigrated from Ireland to the States and had all reconnected.
Then, during my investigation into one of Margaret’s sons, William T. Boyce (who I learned was born William Thomas Murphy), I discovered the entire O’Shea family, who had ties to both Maryland and Pennsylvania. It turned out Margaret’s sister Catherine had married Michael O’Shea, a baker, and had died in a farming accident in Pennsylvania, but was buried at the same cemetery as her parents in Maryland in the O’Shea family plot. Her death certificate gave her parents’ names as Terry O’Keeffe & Nancy Meade.
Fayette County, Pennsylvania, Catherine O'Shea death certificate, 28 May 1914.
While this confirmed for me that Catherine and Margaret were siblings, it also raised a question as to why the discrepancy in their mother Anne Meade’s name…where did the first name of Nancy come from? The informant on Catherine’s death certificate was Edward McGivern of Scottdale, Pennsylvania.
Questions That Remained:
Who was Edward McGivern, and what relationship did he have to Catherine (Keeffe) O’Shea or the rest of my Keeffe family? Perhaps how closely he was acquainted with Catherine would be the determining factor as to how knowledgeable he was of Anne (Meade) Keeffe’s given name. I have still been unable to clarify Edward’s precise relationship to Catherine. I do know he was born in 1891 in Uniontown, Fayette County, Pennsylvania to English native parents, Michael McGivern and Sarah Jane Harrison. He was only 22 years old when he filled out Catherine’s death certificate and was a newlywed to wife, Alice Hill. His own funeral services were later held at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, and he was later buried at Scottdale Cemetery, so I would venture to guess he and Catherine were not apart of the same church community as she was likely still a devout Catholic, although that possibility cannot be ruled out. It should also be noted that within the parish records of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Cumberland (where Catherine was buried), I have found entries for the surname McGivern. So there’s also a chance the two families had some sort of ties going back to Cumberland.
The main question that lingered in my mind following my previous blogs was whether Terence ever reunited with his eldest daughter Honora, whom he requested make contact with him by way of Pierce Byrne, the coroner of Cumberland, Maryland in 1851. While the family burials at St. Patrick’s in Cumberland led me to believe Terence’s location must have been known to his wife and most or all of his other children, it appeared to me at the time, that Honora’s whereabouts were unknown to her entire family. I had interpreted Terence’s post in “The Boston Pilot” to mean that his daughter Honora had travelled from Ireland to New York alone, ahead of her family on New Year’s Day in 1851, and had written back home that she had been hired out to a hatter in New Jersey. I then believed the remaining members of the family had made landfall in the U.S. in the months following and had settled in Maryland and West Virginia. My heart was broken to know that Terence died just two years later of T.B. and not knowing whether he was ever able to find Honora.
I conducted my own independent, online searches for Honora in New York and New Jersey with little luck. Terence had provided a considerable amount of information to help track her down in his newspaper posting, however, it wasn’t enough. By the 1860 census, her alleged employer, Peter P. Kipp, was a 28-year-old living as a farmer in New Jersey with an Irish labourer in his household named Patrick. I also found Kipp with a young Irish live-in maid servant a few years later. So while it appears that Honora working for him as a young Irish girl fits the pattern, there’s no written record to reflect her time with him, let alone serving in the hatter industry.
New Findings:
But I hit genealogy gold when I was searching for any Keeffe passengers on the ship American Congress which disembarked in New York on January 3, 1851 (practically on New Year’s Day, as Terence had thought). I had already done a search for Honora Keeffe on the ship manifest and had come up empty. I started thinking maybe there had been another ship that arrived on New Year’s Day exactly and Terence had somehow learned of this other ship’s name that arrived around the same time. However, that wasn’t the case. I also questioned whether Honora would have travelled under a pseudonym or stowed away somehow. It took me awhile to figure out whether the manifest of the American Congress even existed on microfilm, as its sailing pre-dated both Ellis Island and Castle Garden (New York’s most famous immigration centers). Eventually I found the image! I was able to scan through the January 3rd passengers line by line until I found THE ENTIRE KEEFFE HOUSEHOLD.
"New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1891," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 21 May 2014), 095 - 20 Dec 1850-22 Feb 1851 > image 143 of 861; citing NARA microfilm publication M237 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 95.
Granted, there were some odd discrepancies with their entries, but all in all, I found all 8 Keeffe family members together on the same ship! Interestingly, some of the discrepancies actually helped me confirm this was indeed my family.
• Terence was actually recorded as (what looks like) Jerry Keefe, age 30
o This is intriguing because when Edward McGivern filled out Catherine (Keeffe) O’Shea’s death certificate, he listed her father as Terry O’Keeffe, rather than Terence. That was the only time I’d seen his name recorded in nickname form. However, here on his immigration paperwork, it looks like he may have casually gone by Terry. Now, why is it recorded as Jerry rather than Terry? I can’t possibly know, and it’s unfortunate, because Jerry (or Jeremiah) was also a common Irish name from around Terence’s neighborhood. This casts doubt on this record being of my 4th great grandfather. Another reason to be concerned of whether this is Terence is his age. “Jerry” is recorded as being 30 years old, while Terry would have been closer to 50. There is a 20 year age gap to account for! It can also be noted that the occupation column was only filled out for heads of households, so if Jerry was purely an uncle or brother to the Keefe children, then we’d likely see other professions next to their names as well. Instead, it treats him essentially like the breadwinner for the entire Keefe family logged on the manifest. This gives credence to this being Terence.
• Anne was actually recorded as Nancy Keefe, age 28
o So here, again, we have two discrepancies, just like with Terence; one being that we should see Terence’s spouse recorded as Anne Keefe and another being that his spouse should be approximately 48 years old (another 20 year age gap)! Because these 2 Keefes were listed at the top of their family unit on the passenger manifest, I am inferring they are the heads of household (and thus, the parents). Their names are also just too similar to what we’d expect. It’s interesting that once again, Edward McGivern had known Catherine’s mom to be named Nancy, and here we see her recorded as Nancy! Also, because both Terence and Anne’s incorrect ages were off by the same amount, 20 years, I personally believe this to be some sort of general misunderstanding on behalf of the attendant cataloguing the folks on the ship. We can also discount Nancy being a 2nd wife to Terence, because there is only a marriage record between Terence and Anne, not one between a Terence and Nancy. Plus, this would mean daughter Margaret Keeffe’s marriage should have been overseen by Nancy, not Anne (who would have been deceased, if these are two different women).
• Honora was actually recorded as Norry Keefe, age 20
o This would certainly explain why I could not find an Honora indexed on the ship American Congress during this sailing via NARA’s site (which does not provide images). Some nicknames or abbreviations for Honora are Nora, Norah, Nona, Nano, or as we see here, Norry.
• Arthur was recorded as Arthur Keefe, age 17
o While his name was as expected, Catherine should have been about this age and he should have been listed after her entry; instead, they were swapped.
• Catherine was recorded as Catherine Keefe, age 13
o This age appears a few years younger than what she should have been.
• Mary was recorded as Mary Keefe, age 10
o She was entered as expected.
• Anne was recorded as Nancy Keefe, age 7
o Obviously, we would have expected her entry to match her baptismal church record of Anne, but this emphasizes that she was likely named for her mother, Anne, who was seemingly also known as Nancy (again giving reason to believe that Nancy Keefe, age 28 on this manifest is her mother, despite the age gap).
• Margaret was recorded as Margaret Keefe, age 5
o She (my 3rd great grandmother) was entered as expected.
• In addition, a few other entries on the manifest following the Keeffe family are of interest:
o Michael Keating – this may have been Terence’s neighbor and a sponsor of one of his children’s baptisms
o Johanna Keating – this may have been not only Michael Keating’s wife, but possibly a familial relation to either Terence or Anne
o Polly Keefe – this may have been a familial relation to Terence
So it wasn’t only Honora who sailed from Ireland to the U.S. on the American Congress, it was the entire family! This means my interpretation of Terence’s “Boston Pilot” posting was completely off-base. He wasn’t trying to reconnect with her after his first time arriving in America, and he hadn’t received the details of her sailing by way of letter, no, he knew all of the ship and arrival details because he was on that same ship. He was just attempting to reconnect with her after she had been hired out upon their arriving in America together! And I have further reason to believe they did make contact once again in Maryland (more to come on that piece).
The passenger manifest also affirms that all baptized members of this family unit survived the famine years, which is quite shocking given their residence of North Cork, which was hit hard, due to its dependence on the potato crop.
Ordnance Survey Island, National Irish Historic Maps Dashboard of Kildorrery, County Cork, Ireland, MapGenie 25 Inch, undated.
There is the possibility that Anne may have suffered miscarriages during those bad harvest years or even given birth to infants who did not survive long enough to be baptized, but there are no records stating such, if so. From what we know of the Keeffes, they arrived in America intact as a family unit.
An interesting side story to Terence Keeffe being in Cumberland at this time. In his “Boston Pilot” notice, he mentioned being in the care of Pierce Byrne. Byrne happened to be the coroner for Cumberland in those years, but he also became guardian to a young lad, J. Mathews, a practicing comedian, who can be seen enumerated with the Byrne family in the 1850 U.S. federal census (just a year prior to when Terence was with him). While building up his resume as a comedian, Mathews worked as a stage actor. More than likely, his most famous performance would have occurred on the night of April 14th, 1865, when he portrayed the role of Attorney Mr. Coyle in “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C.
Ford's Theatre, Our American Cousin playbill, Washington D.C., 14 Apr 1865.
Yes, that’s right. This kid of Byrne’s was performing the night that Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a fellow actor – and friend! That’s correct, Mathews and Booth were buddies. Not only that, but they also resembled each other, and because of that fact, Mathews was nearly hung by the neck by an angry mob the night of the killing due to their similar likeness.
Unknown photographers, split screen of photographs of John Mathews (allegedly) on left and John Wilkes Booth on right, undated.
To pile on further, Booth had made multiple attempts to try and get Mathews to assist in kidnapping the president previously (of which, he declined) and had given Mathews a letter to pass on to the press earlier that day (which Mathews reportedly threw in a fireplace). While Mathews may have squeaked by with a clean record in the end, it’s still disheartening to know he probably harbored some of the same anti-union, anti-Lincoln, and pro-slavery sentiments that Booth held, considering their friendship. And, in turn, it’s also easy to assume that the Byrne family had a pro Southern philosophy as well, and the Keeffes may have shared in those beliefs, despite having escaped a country in which they had just been recently mistreated. While the Keeffes were no longer associates with the Byrne family by the time the Civil War broke out, or even when Lincoln was assassinated (as both families had removed to other states), it’s just interesting to note that due to Mathews and Booth being friends, it’s quite possible the Keeffes may have met or been in the company of John Wilkes Booth about ten years previous to his famous criminal act.
Back to why I believe Terence and Honora got back in touch! While I do not have definitive proof, I have reason to believe that Terence’s message reached Honora. Or, by some means, Honora came to the knowledge that her family had settled around the Cumberland, Maryland area, because there is a marriage recorded in the Allegany County Maryland Marriage Book B between Michael Osha and Honora Keif on 21 June 1852. She reached Maryland! The unsettling news? This marriage took place about 9 months after her father died, so he was unable to witness his eldest daughter’s wedding, hence why I do not have solid proof they reconnected. But I would venture it’s more than likely she had been in the area for awhile, enough time to meet her future husband, a baker.
Honora, or “Norry,” and Michael O’Shea had 4 known children together: Catherine, Mary, John, and George (who died as a toddler in 1861). Sadly, the hard knocks didn’t end there for this family. Honora passed away in Cumberland on 28 September 1862 around the incredibly young age of 34. She is thought to be buried at St. Patrick’s Cemetery.
St. Patrick's Church, Roman Catholic parish registers, record of death for Honora O Shea, Cumberland, Allegany County, Maryland, 28 Sep 1862.
Her short lifespan is another reason she has been hard to track down, as she produced fewer records over her lifetime. Finding her marriage to Michael was really a game changer though, because he was already known to me, but not as Honora’s husband, but rather, as her sister Catharine’s husband!
That’s right. Michael O’Shea, the baker, had married both Honora Keeffe and her sister, Catharine Keeffe. But don’t worry, not at the same time! Catharine’s first marriage was to a man named Daniel Casey in the Cumberland area. They had a son together, John Thomas Casey. But Catharine very soon after giving birth, became a widow, when Daniel died in March of 1862. It was only six months later when her sister, Honora (Keeffe) O’Shea, died, making Michael O’Shea a widower with three children to raise on his own. This appears to be the catalyst for Michael O’Shea and Catharine (Keeffe) Casey to be wed. The marriage took place the following year on 23 May 1863, according to the Allegany County Marriage Book B.
Catharine was now not only the aunt to Honora’s children, but also their step-mother. Michael and Catharine went on to have 3 known children together, though 1 of them (gender unknown) died before the year 1900, possibly as an infant. The 2 surviving children were: Norah Annie O’Shea and Michael Joseph O’Shea. Before fully piecing this family puzzle together, something that tipped me off that Honora may have been married to Michael and passed away was Catharine and Michael’s daughter’s name. The Irish are very keen to naming patterns, and it’s traditional to name the first daughter to a 2nd union after the previously deceased wife. Norah Annie screamed out to me as being in honor to both Catharine’s sister and her mother. Sure enough, the puzzle pieces all fit. Other clues to this riddle lay in the U.S. federal censuses. Realize that at the time I was studying this, no one in any online family trees had even shown Michael O’Shea to have had 2 separate wives. They all believed his wife’s name was Catherine Honora O’Shea or Catherine Annie O’Shea (essentially combining the lives of 2 separate women).
1910 U.S. federal census, Everson, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, household of Kathrine OShea, dwelling no. 57, family no. 87.
In the 1910 U.S. federal census, a widowed Kathrine O’Shea states she gave birth to 4 children, but only 3 are still surviving in that year. We see her first-born from her first marriage, John T Casey, is residing with her, so he would be 1 of 3. The other 2 would be Norah and Michael, recorded as Noria and Michel in the 1880 U.S. federal census (note John Casey is mistakenly enumerated with Catharine’s remarried surname O’Shea):
1880 U.S. federal census, Cumberland, Allegany County, Maryland, household of Catharine O. OShea, dwelling no. 101, family no. 101.
So when we look back to the 1870 U.S. federal census at the time Michael O’Shea is still living, and we see several other children in the household that also appear to pre-date Catharine’s 1st marriage to Daniel Casey, we have to wonder which parents they belong to. The 1870 census does not state relationships for us, though we can generally assume they’re likely to be children of at least one of the adults living in the household. In this case, since all are enumerated as O’Sheas and Catharine wouldn’t have been their biological mother, this led me to the belief Michael had been previously married. But to whom?
1870 U.S. federal census, District 6, Allegany County, Maryland, household of Michael O'Shea, dwelling no. 9, family no. 10.
That is where the 1900 U.S. federal census helped me out! Note how I had to extrapolate clues from all of these different censuses, but in a non-linear timeline, to sort out the structure of this blended family!
1900 U.S. federal census, Upper Tyrone, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, household of Catherine O'Shea, dwelling no. 117, family no. 141.
In the 1900 census, Catherine O’Shea again reiterates that she only had 4 children of her own and only 3 that survived until that year. This helped reassure me that information was accurate, as she stuck to it ten years later in the following census. Yet, here in this census, we see her enumerated with 2 step-grandchildren, John James O’Shea and Joseph M O’Shea. (Funny enough, her biological son John Casey is listed as only a boarder in her household!) The “step” relationship signaled to me that at least somewhere in her generation or her children’s generation there had been a remarriage. And because these 2 boys carried the O’Shea name, they were children to a son of Michael O’Shea. The only son Catharine and Michael had together was Michael O’Shea (junior), born in May of 1869. He would not have been old enough to be the father of these 2 boys. Therefore, Michael O’Shea (the senior one) must have had a son prior to his marriage to Catharine. That only left 1 candidate as the father to these 2 boys – John O’Shea, born about 1857.
But if Catharine wasn’t John’s mother, who was? Again, we have to step further back in time, now to the 1860 U.S. federal census where we see John O’Shea as a wee 3-year-old in the household of his father, listed as Michael Osha.
1860 U.S. federal census, Cumberland, Allegany County, Maryland, household of Daniel Casey, dwelling no. 173, family no. 173.
Here, the likely mother to the children in the household is an Irish-born woman named Annie, about the age of 29. Of course, this now makes sense why other descendants would assume Annie and Catharine were the same woman, because her birth year was quite similar and she was also of Irish extract. There was a good amount of time in which I only knew this to be Michael’s first wife, Annie (maiden name unknown) or Honora Annie (maiden name unknown). I had not yet found any marriage record for Michael O’Shea during these years. In March 2021, the only information I was working from was an entry on an Ancestry.com tree by user mchugh760 of a marriage between Michael and Catherine Honora O’Keefe that had been left uncited.
Screenshot of Ancestry.com profile page for Catherine Honora O'Keefe by user mchugh760, Jun 2023.
I needed to track down where that user found that information so I could verify it and then decode who this Catherine Honora was. All of the other descendants of this branch that I reached out to were under the impression Catharine O’Keefe was the only woman Michael had been married to and had children with. And seeing the name Honora in the mix definitely sparked my interest, as I had still wondered what ever happened to Honora Keeffe after she went to New Jersey. When I touched base with user mchugh760 and explained the possible confusion between Michael’s wives, they also shared that they remembered finding two people during their ancestral hunt, too, but never could figure it out.
They also had further personal insight into this family, providing the story:
My great aunt kate mchugh talked about micheal o’shea and honora said they owned a bakery and once fed soldiers during civil war.
What an amazing tidbit! It’s likely Kate McHugh was not born until around the year 1900, so she would not have known this story first-hand. Michael and Honora were her great grandparents. She was descended from their eldest child, Catherine G (O’Shea) McHugh. She also provided the following information:
Maternal Great Grandparents - Michael OShea - Hannara O'KeefeHad 5 children –Catherine married James McH –Mary married Bernard FaheyAnnie married James MurrayJoseph married Mary BamberryJohn Married Elizabeth Schrives –John, Joseph + Anne Murray moved to Everson Pa due to employement boom in steel mills - all are dead also children –the only survivors is Cath Schlasser 98 Link Ave Pgh Pa - She had 2 brothers priests Michael, Arthur both deceased buried in Scottdale
There is both corroborating evidence in Kate McHugh’s info and conflicting evidence! The most important info she provides is confirmation that Michael had been married to an Honora O’Keefe! Note, she did not use the name Catherine. When I finally then found an index record in the county of Allegany, Maryland, stating the marriage had occurred 21 June 1852, this sealed the deal for me that Honora and Catharine were 2 separate women, and they were both Keeffe women!
Allegany County, Maryland, marriage record for Honora Keif and Michl Osha, 21 Jun 1852.
Michael’s indexed marriage license to Catharine was not easy enough clarification, as she was only listed as Mrs. Cassidy (rather than Mrs. Casey). I will need to do further digging to find out if the full marriage licenses and/or records are extant for the county, rather than just this index list. If the licenses still exist, the hope would be it proves this was a transcription error by the indexer and the bride should have been recorded as Mrs. Casey. I did look line by line through the Allegany County, Maryland marriage license index from 1850-1860 to find Catharine’s first marriage to Daniel Casey (or Cassidy), but was unable to locate it. I only found one Cassidy groom, Thomas Cassidy marrying E. Lurner, and no Casey grooms.
Allegany County, Maryland, marriage record for Mrs. Cassidy and Michl OShea, 23 May 1863.
The conflicting evidence Kate McHugh’s info adds is listing Annie and Joseph as children of Honora. Firstly, John was older than the both of them, so he should have been listed as the 3rd child if she was listing in order of birth. Secondly, Annie and Joseph belonged to Catharine (Keeffe) O’Shea, as Honora had passed away by their births.
Regardless, Kate McHugh’s detailed info on this branch of the family was invaluable to solving this mystery. The only name left un-corroborated is Annie. Honora was only enumerated with Michael O’Shea and family once, in the 1860 census, but she was listed as Annie, not Honora. It’s really only by Kate McHugh’s inherited info on the family that we can assume Annie and Honora are one-in-the-same person. As her baptismal and marriage records document her as Honora, and her immigrant paperwork documents her as Norry, my belief is that Annie was her middle name.
Eventually, I will be studying my DNA connections with this side of the family and expect to see elevated centimorgan matches between any descendants of Honora & Michael and Catharine & Michael. I do still need to find original records for both of Michael’s marriages, as I have only uncovered the indexes so far.
Continuing on the topic of the Keeffe siblings’ marriages, let’s direct our attention back to my 3rd great grandmother, Margaret Keeffe. Although I knew Margaret was married twice, I was left wondering what became of her first husband Patrick Murphy (I am descended from her second husband, James Boyce). I could not locate a death registration for Patrick, but knew he must have died sometime between conceiving their son, William, in 1863 and January 7th of 1868, when Margaret remarried. He very well may have died during the Civil War, however, I could also not find any military service records for him.
What I did end up finding was a Civil War Pension Application filed by Margaret after the death of her 2nd husband, James Boyce. James had served during the Civil War. Surprisingly, within the application, Margaret gave the date of death of her 1st husband, Patrick: 6 May 1865!
She did not include any context, so I was still left wondering how or where he died, but at least I had the when. I thought the date could help me fill in those blanks, but alas, no. Until a couple years later, a good samaritan genealogist, who just happened to be looking through old Missouri newspaper articles, messaged me out of the blue that they had found a few clippings in a St. Louis paper that shed light on Patrick’s death!
Daily Missouri Republican, "KILLED BY A FALL," 8 May 1865.
They were able to flag this for me only because I had included his date of death on my public Ancestry.com tree by that point in time! It turns out our Patrick Murphy had stepped away from his papermaker profession and had become a steamship deckhand. He suffered a tragic fall on the Kate Putnam and died nearly instantly.
NYPL Digital Collections, photograph of St. Louis, Missouri levee, 1875.
I would have never thought to look for Patrick in Missouri of all places, and even if I had, his name would have been too generic to find the right one. I am incredibly thankful to this amazing researcher who went out of their way to alert me to the article in which they had no relationship to themselves. This more than explained the reason why I could not find a death record for him in West Virginia. The Missouri newspapers reported that a coroner’s inquest would be held, but I have not been able to find one as of yet. It’s unclear whether those records still exist for that time period.
It wasn’t only Patrick Murphy who I was looking for records of death for in this extended family, though. While the website, FindAGrave, had included dates of death and minimal notes for both Terence Keeffe and his wife Anne, the memorials had not been sourced. It was impossible to know where the information had originated. And when that occurs, you always need to take it with a grain of salt.
Split screen screenshot of FindAGrave memorials for Terrence O'Keefe and Mrs. Anne Mead O'Keefe, July 2023 (a couple months after the latter had been published as Mrs. A. O. Keefe).
I messaged the memorial contributor with no response, and I had photo requests in for their headstones for the past couple years, also with no response. I decided to ask a Maryland local to drive out to St. Patrick’s Cemetery in Cumberland and photograph their graves, mostly to prove to me they were there. Unfortunately, she came up empty. She could not locate their plots, and she let me know the older part of the cemetery was quite sparse. So it’s entirely possible the stones could have gone missing in the past hundred plus years, or even never been placed, depending on cost. That was a bust. But then, she helped me navigate through some of the Maryland State Archives site (which is extremely difficult with their plethora of links). This sent me on a wayward search for parish records belonging to St. Patrick’s Church, and I found some that looked extremely promising, though also hard to sift through. Eventually, I did find where the original FindAGrave contributor had seemingly sourced their memorial information for Terence and Anne Keeffe. It was in the Records of Deaths of the church!
(Left) St. Patrick's Church, Roman Catholic parish register, Terence O'Keef record of death, 13 Sep 1853. (Right) St. Patrick's Church, Roman Catholic parish register, Mrs. A. O'Keefe record of death, 14 Jul 1871 in Wheeling, West Virginia.
The church’s burial and interment records did not begin until at a least a decade later, so while it’s likely Terence and Anne are buried at St. Patrick’s, it’s also possible they’re not, since their records were in regards to their passing, not their burial. The church no longer holds services, but I will need to get in touch with one of their caretakers to ask these lingering questions.
It also still begs the question as to why West Virginia does not show a record of Anne’s death, if she did die within their state lines, as St. Patrick’s Church suggests. West Virginia is historically very good at keeping records, so that surprises me. I’ve tried searching for it using all sorts of wildcard parameters and dates, to no avail in their system at WVCulture.org. I’ve also, of course, scoured newspapers to find any mention of a woman’s death around the date that Anne was recorded as dying. Previously, I had thought Anne had died prior to Margaret’s 2nd marriage to James Boyce, as Margaret’s church and civil marriage records do not mention her parents, but so long as St. Patrick’s Church’s record is correct, this is not the case, and Anne did not pass away until 1871.
That wraps up the majority of the U.S. findings on the Keeffes over the past couple of years. Of course, there are still stories to uncover, such as whether prison records exist for Western State Penitentiary in Pennsylvania where Margaret’s eldest son, William, was locked up, and also if there happens to be physical remnants of an O’Shea family plot at St. Patrick’s Church Cemetery in which Catharine (Keeffe) Casey O’Shea was said to have been buried. Plus, many more!
My next blog will showcase what I’ve learned about the Keeffe family’s life back in Ireland before emigrating to the States in 1851.
Comments
Post a Comment