James Keefe

James Keefe was born a Keefe, not an O'Keefe, in Canada in 1861. He emigrated with MacNeils to Chelsea, Massachusetts and married great-grandmother Mary Ellen MacNeil. He is the father of Anne Louise Keefe, and my great-grandfather. A working man, he died rather young about age 58 in 1919 - AUg 24-26 with buria in HolyHood in the plot next to his father & mother in law John MacNeil & Anne Louise MacEachern MacNeil .. but owned his own house, which he may have built. His father in law lived nearby in Chelsea on Gerrish Street. Many MacNeils and Keefes emigrated from Canada via the North Shore and settled in Boston or Chelsea. More research including his mother and father and birthplace is underway.

Whether he was born in Nova Scotia's Cape Breton, or Prince Edward Island is not yet re-discovered. he is buried in HolyHood Cemetery in Brookine, Ma. The custom of dropping the "O'" was occasionally reversed as my grandmother's schoolbooks show .. and it was an occasional fashion of teachers, etc. to re-apply it. All of our Keefe ancestors from Chelsea otherwise used just Keefe. As for PEI, there had been a Keefe loyalist settlement there including members of a musket militia from the 18th century .. they may have been relations and keys to migration there.

Keefes also descend from a Danish Viking mix with Irish in County Cork .. and the name Keefe is derived from the KEEVE the name of the Danish King of Munster, the southern province ruled from about 950 to 1066.