Mary Catherine Vahey b. 5 Aug 1899 Drimbane, County Mayo, Ireland d. 11 Jul 1969 Manchester, New Hampshire: Lucies Family History Site

1899 - 1969 (69 years)

Photos » Slide Show		Portrait of Mary Kate (Vahey) Walsh - oil, by Ethel R. Foster, 1938 Oil on canvas, signed upper right 'E R Foster '38' (initials run together; signature partly hidden under the frame until Craig moved the canvas in April 2024). Mary was about 39. Family tradition: an art teacher at the Manchester Institute of Arts and Sciences, where Mary worked as a maid, painted her. Her husband Dudley was the Institute's caretaker (1942 draft card; 1940 census 'art gallery'). The artist is identified as Ethel Robinson Foster (1881-1963) of Concord, NH - Art Students League, charter member of the New Hampshire Art Association, exhibited at the Manchester Institute and the Currier Gallery; her photograph collection is at the New Hampshire Historical Society. Correspondence with Karen Papineau, Currier Museum, March-April 2024. Provenance: kept by Dudley's son Dinny and his wife Emily, who - by her own account - could not stand looking at it. On one of Craig's visits to Manchester Emily pulled it out of a closet and said that, as Mary's grandson, he should have it. It now hangs at the end of Craig and Marjorie's hallway in Honolulu, where he sees it many times a day and loves it.
		Emily, "Ma," and Craig Walsh at Rensselaer Campus Returning Craig to RPI after Thanksgiving Vacation, 1966 -- His freshman year.
		John Walsh and Mother Mary Kate Vahey Walsh Date unknown
		Signature on Mary Walsh's portrait - 'E R Foster '38' Detail of the upper right corner of the 1938 portrait, revealed by moving the canvas within the frame (photo by Craig Walsh, April 2024, red saturation slightly increased to make the signature legible).

Documents » Slide Show		Dudley W. Walsh - WWII Draft Registration Card
		1930 U.S. Census - Riverdale [Village], Hillsborough County, New Hampshire Dudley (father) is shown as a gardener on a private estate, immigrated to the US in 1912. Wife is shown as Mamie, emigrated to the US in 1917.
		"Mrs. Mary Walsh Collapses, Dies" - Obituary
		Mary Vahey - Passenger Manifest - S.S. Philadephia Mary arrived at Ellis Island on 1 October 1916, a 17 year old "servant" from Ireland, on her way to her uncle in Boston. Her arrival manifest is on the Ellis Island website.
		Mary Catherine Vahey - Born 5 Aug 1899 Civil birth record. Born 5 Aug 1899, in the Ballyhaunis District, County Mayo. Father: Anthony Vahey; Mother: Winifred McGarry. Gender incorrectly shown as male. Notes indicate: "E.Kate/Catherine. twin of John Austin. Margaret McGarry 'present at birth.'" Irish Family History Foundation
		1901 Irish Census - Thomas Vahey and Family The 1901 Irish census shows Thomas Vahey (farmer, age 80, Roman Catholic, born in County Mayo) living with his wife Bridget [Curly] Vahey (age 75). With them is their son Anthony (age 34, shown as a "farmer's son"), daughter-in-law Winefred Vahey (age 26), and granddaughers Delia (age 6 months) and Mary (age 2) and grandson John (age 2). They are living at house 13, Brickeens, Bekan Civil Parish, County Mayo.
		1920 U.S. Federal Census - Mary Vahey The 1920 U.S. Census shows Mary C. Vahey (shown as Mamie C. Vahey -- see also the 1930 Census, where she is also Mamie) working as a waitress in a private home. She is shown as being age 21 (born 1899), single, and she emigrated to the United States in 1916. Her employer is John D. Boardman, a real estate broker. The home is at 49 Hereford Street, Boston, Massachusetts -- just off of Commonwealth Avenue. Source Citation: Year: 1920; Census Place: Boston Ward 8, Suffolk, Massachusetts; Roll: T625_742; Page: 8A; Enumeration District: 234; Image: 629. Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2005.

Headstones

Grave of Dudley and Mary Walsh
Plot: 1-190

Name	Mary Catherine Vahey
Birth	5 Aug 1899	Drimbane, County Mayo, Ireland [1]
	Social Security Death Index shows date of birth as 15 August 1900. Official geneaology records of County Mayo show address at birth as Brickens, Ballyhaunis District, South Mayo. Reference 27-27.
Gender	Female
Travel	5 Aug 1899	Claremorris, County Mayo, Ireland
	Irish civil birth registration (irishgenealogy.ie, cibi-9937393): Mary Vahey, born 5 Aug 1899, Claremorris registration district, mother's maiden surname McGarry. Confirms the birth date. NOTE: at her marriage in Dedham on 6 Jun 1920 she gave her age as 30; she was in fact 20.
Physical Description	01 Oct 1916	thru Ellis Island
	Description on passenger manifest: 5 foot 3.5 inches tall, fair complexion, brown hair, blue eyes, age 17.
Immigration	01 Oct 1916	thru Ellis Island
	Arrival on "The Philadelphia" (line 2 of passenger manifest, pages 254/255) at Ellis Island on 1 Oct 1916. Departed Liverpool. Mary Vahey is a servant, able to read/write. Nearest relative: Michael McGarry, Drimbane, Ballyhaunis, County Mayo. Destination Boston, Mass. Uncle living at 421 Summerville Avenue, Boston. Passage paid by uncle.
	Address: 421 Summerville Avenue Boston, Massachusetts United States
Residence	1930	Riverdale, New Hampshire [2]
	1930 Census shows resident in Riverdale [Village], New Hampshire
Social Security Number	001-26-7946
Death	11 Jul 1969	Manchester, New Hampshire
Burial	St. Joseph Cemetery (new) - Manchester, N.H.
Notes	Craig's recollections (Oct 2026): Craig stayed with his grandmother a couple of times at Thanksgiving while at RPI. She was sweet. Her Manchester apartment had a big metal grille in the floor, about 3 ft square - the register of a gravity furnace in the cellar - a hazard for a barefoot boy from Hawaii; and the kitchen at the back sloped downhill, the building having settled long before, and she had simply adapted to it. In the summer of 1967, as Craig headed home after his freshman year at RPI, it was decided that Mary should come to live with the family in Hawaii. Dinny (the high-school principal) and Emily drove her to Manchester airport; Craig met her at JFK. She had brought an enormous basket of food for the flight - though airlines then served meals - and they flew the United non-stop to Honolulu, about 11 hours. Apart from Manchester to JFK, she had never flown before, and she was tremendously excited. She never talked about Dudley; Craig never met him (Dudley died when Craig was nine months old). Craig's recollections, continued: In Hawaii (summer 1967) Craig's parents moved out of their bedroom - the only air-conditioned one - so that Mary could have it. Craig's father did not meet her at the airport and paid her little or no attention. They took her sightseeing; she began to complain of an 'itchy rectum', and Craig took her to several doctors - he believed it was her way of seeking attention, but it only made his father take even less interest. After a month or two she decided to go home, to the disappointment of Dinny and Emily, who had hoped for a few more months' respite. On her last evening the family took her out to dinner; Craig's father was persuaded to come, but got angry with her before the appetizers arrived and walked out. It was her only great journey apart from crossing to Ellis Island in 1916. She loved the Red Sox (1967 was their 'Impossible Dream' pennant year) and Craig believes she died watching them on television. At Thanksgiving 1966, when the American bishops had just ended compulsory meatless Fridays, Craig asked her whether she thought the Pope infallible - of course she did - and whether she would now eat meat on Fridays. No: she had always had fish on Friday and she liked it. The Pope had not said she HAD to eat meat on Friday, only that she now could.
Person ID	I5	Walsh - Wilson Family Tree \| Craig
Last Modified	7 Mar 2009

Father	Anthony Vahey, b. 1 Nov 1865, Brickins, Claremorris, County Mayo, Ireland d. 1 Aug 1941, Royal Infirmary, Manchester (Age 75 years)
Mother	Winifred McGarry, b. Abt 1873, County Mayo, Ireland d. Jun 1944 (Age 71 years)
Marriage	12 May 1898	Ballyhaunis, County Mayo, Ireland [3]
Family ID	F6	Group Sheet \| Family Chart

Family Dudley W. Walsh, b. 16 Jul 1890, Letterfir, County Galway, Ireland d. 20 Feb 1950, Elliot Hospital, Manchester, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire (Age 59 years)

Marriage 6 Jun 1920 Boston, Massachusetts

Children

+	1. John Joseph Walsh, b. 14 Apr 1921, Boston, MA d. 6 Feb 1999, Malvern, England (Age 77 years)
+	2. Dudley William Walsh, b. 17 Jul 1923, Dedham, Massachusetts d. 05 Nov 2004, Laconia, New Hampshire (Age 81 years)

Documents

1940 United States Census
The 1940 U.S. Census shows Dudley Walsh (age 49, working 60 hours a week as a caretaker at an art gallery) living with his wife Mary (age 39, working 40 hours a week as a maid in a private home) and his sons John J (age 18) and Dudley (age 16). New Hampshire > Hillsborough > Manchester > 6-39A > Page 7 of 30.

Family ID F2 Group Sheet | Family Chart

Last Modified 29 Mar 2013

Event Map

Death - 11 Jul 1969 - Manchester, New Hampshire

Burial - - St. Joseph Cemetery (new) - Manchester, N.H.

= Link to Google Earth

Sources

[S4912] www.mayoancestors.com, Genealogy Records of County Mayo, Reference 27-27 (Reliability: 3).
[S55] 1930 United States Federal Census, Source Citation: Year: 1930; Census Place: Weare, Hillsborough, New Hampshire; Roll: 1303; Page: 12A; Enumeration District: 113; Image: 1067.0. (Reliability: 3).
[S4] Family Search Website, (http://www.familysearch.com), Apr-June 1898 Quarter, Film 101259, Volume 4, Page 78, Digital GS 4195895, Image 00080 (Reliability: 3).
Ireland, Civil Registration Indexes 1845-1958