My great grandmother, Ellen (Ivers) O’Keefe lived in the first floor apartment of this house in Providence with her family in 1935. She was the only immigrant ancestor I ever met. Ellen came from Ireland in 1901 at the age of 21, and only because she lived to be over a hundred years old, did I get to hear her sing-song accent.
Actually, her age itself is a good story. When she turned 100, there was big party for her. Local civic and religious leaders attended. Only now, looking back at very old Irish records, can one see that she lied about her age for her entire married life – protective of the fact that she was older than her husband. At her party, she alone knew that she was actually 101. She took the fib to her grave -the wrong date is carved on her gravestone.
Visiting the Relatives 