2/00. John has been toiling away over piles of old documents and letters and has been able to complete many missing peices. But - he stresses there may be errors, and he asks anyone who may spot a contradiction to notify him, and he will make the changes. I may have also made transcribing errors. This page was built starting with information Peter provided me. He says he got much of the information through his family and with help from noted family historian Aunt Dollie...(Jane Woulfe Cooper)
As far as we know, this is the first effort to sort out the Woulfes of Lower Keale, and if anyone can contribute anything further, please contact John in Australia....His e-mail address is on the "Contact Us" page. John also credits Josie Golding for her generous contributions.. And Josie Would credit "Jim of the letters" Woulfe of Wolverhampton for information on the Woulfe "Corner House".
This is another wonderful branch of our family with a deep, rich history.
Peter's Great Grandfather was RICHARD WOULFE,(b1857d1945) a farmer, He was married to JOHANNA SHINE. They had 15 children. Johanna owned the farm at Knocknagorna - possibly through inheritance. She owned it in her own right into the marraige.
They are the Great grandparents to Peter in Canberra.
1 THOMAS (b?d?)
2 PATRICK infant death 1887
3 MAURICE b1888 married BRIDGET ?
4 CATHERINE WOULFE (Kate of Keale) b1891 m PATRICK (JIMEEN) WOULFE - a cousin.
More on PATRICK JIMEEN Woulfe. He's buried in grave #3 at Templeathea. This brought a 4th farm into the family. PATRICK'S first wife died with her child in childbirth His second marraige was to this distant cousin, Catherine. PATRICK and CATHERINE'S son, JAMES (JAMEEN) WOULFE was known as DUMMY WOULFE. This was NOT an insult in those times.He was loved and accepted by the villagers. He was educated very well and learned the shoemaking trade in Dublin.He has written some wonderful historic articles about life in Limerick as a child, and about growing up in a special school for the deaf in Dublin. He was still writing articles about his family in the early 1990's. More on their children below.
PATRICK was known as PADDY JIMEEN. He grew up on the family farm at Knocknagorna, a townland about 5 miles Southeast of Glin. He went to the Knocknagorna Primary school until he was about 14.
5HELEN b1892
6 MICHAEL b1894 married NORA SHINE
This was "OLD MICK". John met him in 1978. "OLD MICK'S" buried in the family tomb atTempleathea. Mick was and ex-sergeant in the old I.R.A.
7 PATRICK b3/15/1896 Knocknagorna - married JOHANNA WINDLE from Knockfinsk.
PATRICK AND JOHANNA are Peter's grandparents - they are the first of the "DIGGER WOULFES"..
At age 23, (1918?) PADDY married JOHANNA WINDLE from Knockfinsk. She was 13 years older than Paddy. She was the youngest daughter of JOHN WINDLE AND BRIDGET WOULFE. Johanna died in childbirth in 1920 while giving birth to her 2nd child at Newcastle West Hospital.
PADDY was left to raise their eldest son PATEEN. PATEEN was born 8/3/1919. His parents, RICHARD AND JOHANNA helped him raise his son.
***more on PATEEN and family history below.
8 MARIAN b1897
9 JOHN (JACK) b1898 married CATHERINE (KIT) BARRET
10 JOHANNA b1900
11 MARGARET (PEG) b1901
12 RICHARD b1903 infant death
13 RICHARD (DICK) b1905 married MOLLY SHERIDAN
14 CORNELUIS (CON) b1906 married KATHLEEN FUER
15 HELEN b1908 d 1922
JAMES JAMEEN 'DUMMY' WOULFE
***Yes, "Dummy" seems like a cruel name for a deaf kid - but that's how it was back then. But, James Jameen was educated at special schools and became a shoemaker and lived in Dublin. He wrote about his experiences growing up, and I plan to make the materiel avaliable in the Documents page for e-mailing.
MICHAEL WOULFE went to New Zealand.
NORA became Sister Dympna
JOSIE became Sister Monica
MARYANNE became Sister Philomena
When PATEEN was about 10, (1929) PADDY and his parents moved back to their ancestral home at Keale. It's believed this house was built by RICHARD's father, another PATRICK WOULFE, with the help of his 2 sons. The walls of the house are still standing and the property remains in the Woulfe name today.
In 1931, PADDY took PATEEN to Australia. They were to join other members of the family already there. JACK WOULFE - PADDY'S brother - had arrived in Australia in 1922, joined by brothers CON and DICK in 1925, PEGGY in 1928, and MAURICE in 1930. It's believed MAURICE died shortly after arriving.
The only ones to remain in Ireland with RICHARD and JOHANNA were MICK who married NORA SHINE and CATH who married PATRICK (JIMEEN) WOULFE. ***Note - during my trip to Ireland, I found JIMEEN's gravestone at Templeathea....mw
PADDY and PATEEN left Dublin for AUSTRALIA 11/11/1931 ON THE "Hobson's Bay." After arriving, they stayed with MAURICE and DICK AT Marrickville at a house on Centennial street where Marrickville High School now stands.
Peter says it was difficult for PADDY to leave Ireland, but also a relief to leave the troubles behind. Apparently PADDY was involved in Irish Politics and had worked closely with an "UNCLE MICK" who was a Sergeant in the I.R.A. PADDY had spent spme time on the run, and apparently some time in jail to.
Peter has some great I.R.A. tales. He says in 1922, 2 I.R.A. men spent the night at PADDY's house and left guns leaning against a wall inside. As Jimmy was a little boy, he remembers his parents telling him, "Not to touch guns."
PATEEN also remembers going past Fitz's Pub in Athea when he was about 7 and seeing UNCLE MICK and a crowd of I.R.A. men standing around outside. He also remembers the Civil War of 1922-23 when the I.R.A. took the village of Athea. He remembers an I.R.A. man standing guard over a stack of guns as the I.R.A. men kneeled inside the church.
Jimmy's dad was searched by the I.R.A. men once, and they discovered a rock in his pocket. It was a rock he used to pound the loose spokes of his wagon wheels back together when the wheels dried out and got loose. The soldiers made him throw it away because they thought it was a weapon. He says the creamery in Athea - which is now Shine's shop - was burned by the Black and Tans.
In 1933, DICK, PADDY, and PATEEN moved to Goulburn to work on UNCLE JACK's dairy. They spent 2 years there and returned to Sydney in 1935.
PADDY went to work as a gardener at Lewisham hospital, and in world war 2 was compelled by the manpower act to work in textile mills.
In 1940, PADDY married ELLY ? whome he met through the local church. They did not have any children. After the war, PATRICK worked for the Catholic Presbytery in Enmore as a gardner/maintenence man until he retired. PATRICK and ELLY lived at Canterbury road, Petersham, the rest of their lives. PADDY died in 1977, ELLY died a few years earlier.
PADDY's son PATEEN married IVY BARCLAY and had 6 children. He and his family went to Ireland in 1966 and returned to the area around Keale. They returned to Australia in 1999.
PAMELA ANNE WOULFE b1944 married GARNET JAMES CARROL
MICHAEL PATRICK WOULFE b1947
JOHN JOSEPH WOULFE b1951 (Peter's father)
KATHRYN ANNETTE B1953
PAUL JAMES b1955
What needs to be done next is to sort out the brothers and sisters of our Richard Woulfe at the top of this page. As far as John reckons, there were 4 farms around Keale - all owned by cousins. Of the 3 original farms, they had been subdivided originally from a larger Woulfe property and given to the sons of that family.
The sons were...1 JAMES, 2 JOHN, 3 PATRICK, and 4 MICHAEL. This probably happened around 1820 to 1830. John P. Woulfe of Australia bases that on Patrick having been born in 1815.(the year of Waterloo) Patrick apprently didn't care for the farming life and took up road constructing and maintenence - contracting to the Landlord of the area, a Mister GOOLD. Patrick also bought and expanded a large house in Athea known as WOULFE AT THE CORNER or "THE CORNER HOUSE". It was nearly doubled in size and was extended around the corner in the Abbeyfeale road. He also built another house across the road which was later rented to the R.I.C. as a police barracks. That house was later sold to Ed Ambrose and later passed to it's present owner, John J. O'Connor. Patrick was a wise investor and good businessman and -as an only son - inherited everything from his father, John. Patrick married MARGARET BARRY whom he met in Ballycollig, Co Cork when he was working on another Goold road project. PATRICK WOULFE AND MARGARET BARRY WOULFE had one son, JOHN. This JOHN had a son named Patrick who never married so the house was left to his female cousin. She married an Englishman named M. PARKES.
***Now - lets look at this son #2 - John...
JOHN WOULFE married a MARY O"CONNOR. 3 boys and 2 girls. Their eldest son John obtained an excellent education, but his life was cut short. He died in the battle of Java during the Spanish Civil War in 1933 when he was only 27.
Of the daughters...Margaret died young. Mary Ann (Nan) lived out her life in mental institutions. Babs and Theresa emigrated to England and married. Patrick - the oldest - never married, but carried on the shop and farm until he died. He left the shop and home to his cousin, a daughter of his uncle Tom O"Connor.
So - John says if we accept for the present that JAMES, JOHN, and MICHAEL were the occupants of the 3 farms at Keale.... According to JIM WOULFE (known as Jim of the Letters) James was his grandfather. James married a Kitty Fitzgerald of Kerry - so James' branch is known as the KITTY WOULFES at farm #1.
James Jameen's father was Patrick, and was known as Paddy Jimeen Woulfe - so we would have the Jameen Woulfe farm #2.
Michael Woulfe,Father of Jim of Shanagolden was known as MICK THE TROOPER WOULFE at farm #3.
One other note... There is a headstone in the cemetery at Templeathea with the inscription:"To the memory of Patrick M. Woulfe, died 2nd of June 1889." No other stones or markers mark the rest of the family,(Patrick, Margaret, John, and Mary Ann) but they are in other parts of the cemetery.
