Research Help from Cousins and the Internet Ether 

Determining who my great-grandfather Thomas Francis Shea's eight siblings were was one of the puzzles I solved a few years into my pursuit of genealogy.  For this reason and the fact that they are my dear grandfather's uncles and aunts makes them special to me.  Several apparently conflicting sources and the family's use of nicknames caused the confusion. 

Recently I received notification of a WorldConnect Post'em on Thomas's sister Josie.[1]  Here is the text that nicely includes the source of the information, an extraction, and the identity of the poster!

2008-06-12 15:26:14

Hi I'm doing the old marriage licenses for Helena, Lewis and Clark County, Montana.

I have found a Josie Shea (parents: Dennis Shea and Bridget Luddy) married Richard Harrington (parents: Jerry Harrington and Katherine Sullivan) on September 7, 1903. License #3746, bk H, pg 260. Neither had been married before.

Josie was born in New York and was 29 years old and living in Minnesota. Richard was born in Michigan and was 35 years old and living in Butte, Silver Bow County, Montana. They were married by a catholic priest and witnesses were: W. H. Shea and Josephine Luddy.

I hope this is your family. If I can be of any other help. Thanks Patt

The use of the nickname Josie now serves as another confirming detail.  Three years before marrying, Josie, christened Johanna, was residing with her sister Minnie, also known as Mary, in St. Peter, Minnesota.[2] 

Witness W. H. Shea is Josie's brother, William.  He appears in the 1900 Census in Montana.[3]  He died in Butte in 1916. 

Josephine Luddy is a first cousin, the daughter of Patrick H. Luddy.[4]  Patrick was known to reside in Montana from about 1880 until his death in Helena in 1904. 

Luddys and Sheas came from Ireland to Montana via New York and sometimes Minnesota.  Thus Josie's birthplace, recorded as New York, is a forgivable inaccuracy.  Perhaps she was not present when her betrothed filed for the marriage license.

Additional details about Josie in the marriage record, her parents, age, single status, name spellings and religion, align with other sources.[5]

Of Josie's spouse, I had only one source that gives more than a surname; it adds his first name initial, "C".  That source, a 1979 family tree compiled by my Shea cousin, Mrs. Lyle Trimbo, first cousin twice removed of Josie's, I believe is in error on this small point.  I'm going with Mr. Harrington's full first name as Richard from the newly discovered marriage license. 

The 1910 US Census yields compelling support.  It is recorded that Richard and Johanna Harrington, married for 7 years, reside at 221 North Henry Street in Butte with their three children, T. Howard, James, and Helen, and Johanna's brother Dennis.  Johanna's birthplace in this document is again, sigh, New York.

Courtesy of my Aunt Sally Shea Bard, I have a picture of the Denis (or Dennis) Shea and Bridget Luddy family.  Mary Cramer, a descendent of Thomas's sister Bridget Ann, holds the original.

Through some excellent sleuthing, my fourth cousin, Jerry Callinan (a descendent of Denis's sister Mary Ellen) speculates that the portrait was taken in February 1895.  Jerry has collected old newspaper stories about the Shea family.  Two items in his files from the Le Sueur Sentinel are the clinchers:

February 7, 1895 Wm. Shea of Butte Montana arrived here on Thursday and will spend a month with his parents-Mr. and Mrs. Dennis Shea, of Lake Prairie. He states that business is very dull in the west.

February 28, 1895 Wm. Shea, who has been visiting the past month with relatives in this city left for his home in Butte Montana on Monday. He was accompanied by his sister Josie, who will spend the summer with him.

Left to right with ages, third row: Bridget Ann, 14, Thomas Francis (my great grandfather), 30, William H., 29, Dennis, 16, Johanna J., 21; second row: John Patrick, 24, Bridget D. Luddy, 50, Mary E., 26, Anna Elizabeth, 12, Dennis Shea, 57; and first row: Alice Gertrude, age 9.

Footnotes

This article appeared in the September 2008 issue of the Irish Genealogical Quarterly.