Mary Elizabeth is named Mary Sophia in some records, e.g. the 1937 and 1943 Electoral Roll, and her funeral notice of 18 November 1946: “Mrs. Mary O’Keefe” Northern Star (Lismore, NSW : 1876 – 1954) 18 November 1946: 6. Web. 28 May 2019 https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article99145851. Born in Grafton in about 1874, a birth does not seem to have been registered.
1874 was the year Adelaide opened a university, continuing a shift from religious groups providing education to more state provided insitutions and control that had begun in the middle 1800s.
In 1905 when she was 30 or 31 years old Mary married Matthew O’Keefe (age 42 or 43). Her son William was 2 years and 10 months old.
William O’Keefe was born at the Benovolent Society’s Maternity Hospital in Paddington and named as George William (Bibo), father not named. The family sees no reason to believe Matthew O’Keefe is not the father of George, or that George is not William. Mary and Matthew had no other children.
Mary’s husband, Matthew O’Keefe was born at Gerringong in 1861 (1871 from one source) and went to the Richmond River area in the early 1880s. He selected land in the Rock Valley district where he carried on dairying until his retirement in 1914. He is reported to have been an excellent judge of dairy cattle. His birth was probably not registered.
The newspaper notice of Mary’s funeral suggests she was not a resident of the Richmond River district until after her marriage. Her younger brother John was born in Lismore in 1881 and the Bibo family had been residents of the region from as early as 1885. Perhaps Mary had moved away for a while.
Between 1905 and 1914 Mary and Matthew lived on the dairy farm at Rock Valley. In 1914 Matthew retired and the family moved to Lismore. The Rock Valley dairy was then run by the Lowe family who built the barn as payment. After the next 14 years of travelling around the state they returned to Rock Valley in 1928.
In 1931 William was running the dairy when his parents moved back to Lismore. Matthew died aged 73 at 108 Orion Street Lismore in 1934. Twelve years later Mary died aged 72 at 162 Orion Street Lismore in 1946.
William O’Keefe
William was born in April 1902 and with his wife Alice, raised a family of eight children. Alice Grantham Harding was two years younger than William, being born in Lismore in June 1904. They were married in August 1925 and moved to the Kandanga locality in the Gympie region of Queensland.
Alice and William’s first child was born in Gympie in 1926, while the other seven are all recorded as born in Lismore, after the family had returned to Rock Valley in 1928.
Descendant from these eight grand-children are 22 great-grand-children and over 40 great-great-grand-children.