Thread: Looking for O'Keefe Keefe - last seen in Suffolk!

Hello

I'm trying to trace John O'Keefe or Keefe born abt 1844 Ireland. He is our family's 'skeleton in the cupboard', being the father of my great grandmother Agnes Stevenson born 16th April 1868.

Agnes' mother Mary Ann Raymond, married James Carter Stevenson in 1860. James died in 1862. Agnes was born in 1868 & John Keefe (as spelt on the birth certificate) Railway Porter, is named as the father on the birth certificate, along with mother Mary Ann Stevenson of 57 Commercial Road Ipswich Suffolk. There is no record of a marriage between Mary Ann & John Keefe.

In 1871 John O’Keefe was lodging at a house in Station Road, Sudbury Suffolk, in the same census, Mary Ann & Agnes are living in Commercial Road Ipswich. John O'Keefe was employed by GER as an acting guard, he was 27 years old. I am assuming that this is the same John Keefe named on Agnes' birth certificate. A search of the 1881 census proved inconclusive, i.e. no direct links to Suffolk or GER.

Agnes' mother Mary Ann Stevenson died in 1879 & Agnes Stevenson is listed in Hope House Orphanage Ipswich on 1881 census. Agnes married James Trott in 1894, her mother Mary Ann is named in the column 'Father' & Deceased in the column 'Father's occupation'.

Agnes' mother had another daughter Ellen, listed on the 1871 census aged 2 months she died in 1871.

My next steps will be to order a birth certificate for Ellen Stevenson to see if she was also fathered by John Keefe, if so this proves he still had contact with the family in 1871. Then to search the list of GER railway employees which I believe is kept at Chelmsford records office & the records for Hope House Orphanage which are kept in Ipswich.

I would like to hear from anyone who has used the lists, or may have John Keefe / OKeefe / O'Keefe in their tree. I have found a 'cluster' of O'Keefe's in the army barracks in St Botolph's Colchester, were they John's brothers maybe? Also from anyone with any other ideas I could try?

Many thanks in anticipation