Hi Amy,
Apologies for the length of this rambling e-mail, but I've been trying to find details of my great, great grandfather,
Cornelius Keefe (aka Kiefe & Keeffe and a few other variations!). I think he was born in Co Cork in 1856 (although in the 1891 UK census he claims to be from PA, USA) and his father was Timothy (I have found his wedding certificate from 1884 - he could not write & just signed his name with an X!)...
I have found a few dead ends in trying to research him back in Ireland, but here is what I know...
1851/3 - In Griffith's valuation (compiled between 1851-53 in East Cork, see website link below), there is a Timothy Keeffe in the Naglesborough (I can find no record of this) area of Castletownroche. There are no Timothy O'Keefes in Castletownroche and no Timothy's at all in Fermoy...
http://www.failteromhat.com/griffiths/cork/castletownroche.htm1766 - At the website below, it shows a large number of 'Keff's' (including 2 called Timothy & Cornelius - father & sons maybe) in Castletownroche in 1766 - there are also a large number of Nagle's which might explain Timothy's address in 1851/53. The 90 years between this record and Cornelius's birth in 1856, would suggest if there is a connection then they would probably be his great grandparents...
http://www.ginnisw.com/castleto.htm1826 - In the 1826 Tithe Applotment for the Civil Parish of Castletownroche (Diocese of Cloyne, see link below), there are the following Keeffe's (if this is the village we come from, then one of these would be Timothy's father)...
Acres Rods Perches
John Keeffe 56 0 2
Patrick & James Keeffe 14 3 37
Arthur Keeffe 0 0 16
[NB: in Fermoy, there is only a Patrick O'Keefe with 3 Acres]
http://myhome.ispdr.net.au/~mgrogan/cork/castletownroche.htm 1832 - In the Mormon / LDS website, there is one record of a Timothy Keefe being born in Cork to a Timothy & Margaret Brosnahan
Cornelius (b1856) moved to South Wales, UK at or around 1882. Although my great Uncle Joe (b1917, his grandson) is not sure that they all necessarily travelled together, Cornelius came from Cork with his 2 brothers (I don't know which definitely did what it could be the other way around and Patrick, my own name, has also been suggested as another possible name - at 91, Uncle Joe's stroty can change from chat to chat)...
1. Timothy or Timmy (who apparently died of influenza while they were in South Wales) - there is a Timothy 9 years Cornelius's junior living in Bedwellty in 1891 (Uncle Joe has suggested Bedwellty was where they lived)
2. Jeremiah or Jeremy (who returned to Co Cork. after failing to settle and went onto live in the USA, possibly Wilkes-Barre, PA or Chicago, IL).
Cornelius moved up to Bersham Colliery near Wrexham in North Wales on his own and was the lead charge hand there within a few years - maybe his expertise in explosives was one of the reasons the brothers had left Cork!
Originally from County Cork - Uncle Joe is not sure whether this is the Blackrock area of Cork City or either the town of Fermoy or Castletownroche in County Cork. Having found that his father was called Timothy via Cornelius's wedding certificate, I think that Castletownroche is the most likely option, but I still need to research this further. The attached link gives a history of Castletown Roche (described in Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837) which makes it sound quite like Ruthin (my home town in North Wales, UK)...
http://www.from-ireland.net/lewis/cork/c/castletownroche.htmAfter some trips to Cork in the 1950's, Uncle Joe could not find any more details of the family ancestry! Uncle Joe recalls staying in the Victoria Hotel in Fermoy on one such trip (can't find details of this place on the web). He also recalls his Dad & Uncle saying that there weren't many of their family left and that they'd all gone to Chicago / Wilkes-Barre, PA. Including one cousin, Joe thinks was called Arthur, who had married the heiress of a jam & marmalade producer in Chicago. Young Arthur had further endeared himself to his wealthy father-in-law by observing that he was making poor use of the farm land he was only growing fruit on. Arthur encouraged him to introduce pigs to the land as well and this led to a lucrative diversification into pork products...
Hopefully some of this will be relevant and you may have some more details...
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