Daniel O’Keefe came to America in 1908 and had tattoos—like Popeye—on both forearms. He had served as a young man in the Irish Navy on the HMS Howe in Queenstown (now Cobh) not far from where he grew up on the southern coast of East Cork. His father was a shoemaker, and his brothers were blacksmiths.
When Daniel, (a great-grandfather of mine) emigrated to America at age 31, he had a wife (my great-grandmother Ellen Ivers) and two young children. Having followed a few siblings to Providence, Rhode Island, he lived in and around this house on Doyle Avenue for many years. The family grew and Daniel worked a number of jobs, all within walking distance of where he lived. For a decade, he was a fireman in a nearby mill and later in life was a night watchman at the fancy Moses Brown prep school where Ellen worked as a maid, and his son Michael was a groundskeeper. Daniel died in 1938 at 63 of heart disease, but Ellen lived another 37 years to the age of 102. She’s the only immigrant ancestor I ever knew. The O’Keefes never went back to Ireland, but I’ve made connections there with extended family. I look forward to visiting next summer where I’ll be drawing the Irish places left behind by Daniel and Ellen, but still populated by many extended family that stayed.
Visiting the Relatives 