John O'SHEA

John & Margaret O'Shea

John & Margaret lived in Boulasallagh (Rockford, Kerry).  They had six children:

1. Katherine
2. James J.         b:  1863   d:  1943
3. Mary Frances   b:  1865   d:  1923
4. Ellen              b:  1871
5. Johanna         b:  1872   d:  1940
6. Margaret         b:  1883

My Aunt Ann Marie told me this story about John O'Shea.  John O'Shea, the legend goes, left Boulla on short notice, having gone into town to sell some butter.  Whether he was disgusted with the price he got for the goods, or perhaps he learned that authorities were after him, he entrusted his earnings to a neighbor, and told him to tell his wife that he would write.  He ended up in Boston, where his teen-aged daughters were working as "Irish girls" in Yankee households.  He found where his daughter Ellen (Nell, later Mrs. John Mahoney) was working (and, of course, living).  Again,this is all oral transmission, so the drama may have been improved with each retelling.  Anyway, when Nell was told there was a man in the kitchen asking for her, she went down and fainted upon seeing her father. He worked several shifts in Boston, always sending money home, and finally returned after 7-8 years.  One of his jobs was digging the first subway lines. 

Margaret never liked the O'Shea name and never used it.  John died in 1901 just prior to the 1901 census.  Margaret died in 1903.  They are buried in Aglish Cemetery.