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Please post any ideas or make comments, suggestions etc. All help appreciated as Clare and I have been working on this for years and fresh eyes and brains might prompt new avenues of research. Please make the post title a clear descriptor of the post so it will be easy to look back through the archive of posts to find things. To be notified of new posts etc please submit your email address - a pop-up box will then ask you to tick to say you're not a robot. Then you will recieve an email with a link you need to use to verify.

Thursday, 12 April 2018

 John Keefe  -probably possibly a photograph of 1867 perhaps even a wedding photo. Age around 31 or if his birth date is 1833 not 1836, then he is 34.
 John Keefe in ? 1888  ( I am assuming Agnes has not been born yet?) with 8 children - a dynastic picture - not smiling now is he? He is between 52 and 55 years maybe.
 John Keefe in later life Karen may know the date and age. He seems to have had the same waistcoat his whole life.
 Elizabeth Barker presumed date 1867  maybe a wedding photograph, aged 21.
 Elizabeth Keefe  circa 1888 mother of 9 children, age 42
 The mystery woman holding a baby in the original photograph.... is she Elizabeth Keefe (Proud Grandma or Mary O'Keeffe nee Conroy, see below, mother of the baby?
 Mary Conroy pre 1901 - I assume. Born in 1877
Mary O'Keeffe nee Conroy - I don't know the date.

The photographs are engaging. John's date of birth might be a little imprecise. So how old is he in the photographs? Ideas about this would  help because it is not possible to find a suitable baptism at St Finbar's in Cork for 1836.
The photos of the mystery woman, is it Mary or Elizabeth?

This photograph shows all the family of Keefe's in Glaisdale, minus James who died circa 1883 (Will Mama ever forget him No Never) and little baby Agnes  is still to come. 
What can be read from the photograph?  I see a gap there in the back row for a little boy who would have been 8 years old. I would not be arguing with that toddler on Mama's knee. William looks like he might bite too. They must be wearing their Sunday Best - are they affluent or struggling? I also see a little Irishman with sad eyes, not quite so tall as his wife or maybe just sitting on a lower stool? Mary Ann and George look alike - the other children have a different face structure. The girls are all very pretty but I imagine they all wear black. Mary Ann and Helen, 20 and 18 respectively have their photograph taken together in the same costumes on the same day. Why was the photograph taken just here and now.  Why no smiles for the camera? Looking through other photos of the era online, they do seem a miserable lot, and it is hard to recognize the John who played at the Ball in his Quadrille Band and sang slightly risque songs at the Catholic Concerts in Egton Bridge. By 1991 some of the children have left home and only the four youngest children are still at home. ie Elizabeth, William, Frances and Agnes. 


Mary Ann and Helen Keefe circa 1888.

Photos below - from Monica O'Keefe's photo album, shared with me (Karen) by Wyn Simmons


Mother and Baby reverse says: To Willie and Molly from Nellie.  Is this Elizabeth Barker with baby William?  Is this why it's on the same page in Monica's album as the photo of John O'Keefe?

2 comments:

  1. The family photo - was this taken as the family was parting ie when the two eldest left to join convents and the two eldest boys to work in Whitby? That seems logical. But only if the family did not often have photos taken of themselves. However, if that is Elizabeth Keefe nee Barker with one of her babies it might be that trips to the photographer were a more regular occurrence.

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  2. The woman with the baby in the black dress with the brooch has the longest fingers I have ever seen. Elizabeth Barker in the family photo has long fingers too.

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