1. Mary WOULFE was born Abt late 1810s in probably north Kerry or west Limerick. She died in probably Kilbaha, Newtownsandes (Moyvane), Co. Kerry.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to come up with much information on the Woulfe family. Presumably, given that rural people tended to marry into local families in 19th century Ireland, the Woulfes may have came from the general area of Newtownsandes (now Moyvane), Co. Kerry. I have come across an Ellis Island record (on www.ellisisland.org) for a Mary Woulfe of Newtownsandes who arrived in New York, aged 24, in May 1912. Perhaps this Mary was connected to the family of our Mary. On the ship manifest, the name of the father of the Mary who emigrated is given as Pat Woulfe of Newtownsandes. Travelling with Mary was her brother, Thomas, aged 24. Both were headed for Pittsburg where an aunt, a 'Mrs. Sheehan' was living.

Another possibility is that our Woulfe family might have come from the Athea area of west Limerick where the Woulfe name is common. Athea is only a few miles from Moyvane/Newtownsandes. If you have any information on any Woulfe family from either Newtownsandes or Athea, I would be delighted to include it in these notes for Mary so that we might one day be able to establish a connection between them and Mary/Margaret, or between them and and other Woulfe families.  

It's thought a child of John and Mary might have married someone by the name of Walsh from Marble Hole in Tarbert, Co. Kerry. However John and Mary also had a granddaughter, Mary Collins, who married a Willie Walsh from Marble Hole, so perhaps it was a granddaughter rather than a son or daughter who married a Walsh from Marble Hole.

The Woulfe surname is generally quite common in west Limerick and in Kerry, Clare and Cork. The name is an anglicised form of 'de Bhulbh', the name of an Anglo-Norman family that settled in counties Limerick and Kildare.

Mary married John SHANAHAN. John was born Abt 1810s in possibly Kilbaha, Newtownsandes (Moyvane), Co. Kerry. He died in probably Kilbaha, Newtownsandes (Moyvane), Co. Kerry.

MANY THANKS GO TO TOM STACK OF ENNIS, CO. CLARE FOR ALL HIS HELP WITH MY SHANAHAN RESEARCH.

Not much is known about John, or if he had siblings, although it's thought he was born in the townland of Kilbaha in the parish of Newtownsandes (renamed Moyvane in 1939), Co. Kerry. It's a possibility, although we have no proof, that James's parents were Cornelius Shanahan and Mary Dillane because a baptismal record has been located on the Irish Genealogy website, www.irishgenealogy.ie, for a John Shanahan, son of Cornelius and Mary, who was baptised in Listowel, Co. Kerry on 5 March 1809. While there's no mention on the record of Kilbaha, a Kilbaha address is given on the baptismal records of three of Cornelius and Mary's other children. In case our John was indeed a son of Cornelius and Mary, here is a list of their children as found on the Irish Genealogy site:

Michael, baptised in Listowel on 15 October 1805 (sponsors were Michael Shanahan and Mary Keane)
John, baptised in Listowel on  5 March 1809 (sponsors were Michael Grogan and Deborah Dillane)
Catherine of Kilbaha, baptised in Listowel on 9 September 1811 (sponsors were Patrick Mulvihill and Gobnet Dillane)
Cornelius of Kilbaha, baptised in Listowel on 22 July 1814  (sponsors were James Shanahan and Honora Condon)
James of Kilbaha, baptised in Listowel on 8 December 1816   (sponsors were Patrick Paradine and Ellen Shanahan)

It's possible that Catherine above (baptised 1811) was the Catherine Shanahan of Kilbaha who married James Quinn in Moyvane on 10 February 1835  (witness were Cornelius Shanahan and Michael Shanahan). However there was another Catherine Shanahan who married Patrick Buckley and who lived in Kilbaha and had a child named Julia or Juliann, baptised on 11 September 1839. It is of course possible that one of these two Catherines could have been a sister rather than a daughter of John above. And I'm also wondering if Cornelius above (baptised 1814) have been the Cornelius Shanahan who married to a Mary McMahon and had a son, Cornelius, who was baptised in Moyvane on 14 September 1839 (with sponsors John Shanahan and Mary Shanahan)? And it's possible that James above (baptised 1816) is the James Shanahan of Kilbaha West listed in the 1901 census. James was aged 80 and a widower. There's also a Griffiths Valuation entry (December 1851) for a James and a John Shanahan in Kilbaha West who jointly leased about 56 acres from Charles L. Sandes.

I have also located baptismal records (on www.irishgenealogy.ie) for four children of a Michael Dore and Ellen Shanahan of Kilbaha:

Patrick Dore, baptised 1828
William Dore, baptised 1832
Michael Dore, baptised 1834 and
Mary Dore, baptised 1838

Could their mother, Ellen, have been a sister of John Shanahan's?

Other Shanahans with Kilbaha connections include Margaret Shanahan who married Daniel Connell and lived in Kilbaha. They had at least four children: Patrick (born 1831), Johanna (1834), Daniel (1837) and Mary (1842). Then there's Ellen Shanahan from Kilbaha who married Richard Stack on 15 February 1831 and who had a daughter named Mary, born in Kilbaha in 1831; and another Ellen Shanahan, married to a Henry Langan, who had at least two children born in Kilbaha: Mary, born in 1819, and Patrick, in 1823.  A Sarah Shanahan, married to a Redmond Langan, had a son named Denis, born in Kilbaha in 1828; and a Mary Shanahan, married to a Thomas Sperane, had at least two children: John, born in Kilbaha 1813, and Thomas, born in 1815, also in Kilbaha. There was a Johanna Shanahan, married to a James Carrig and living in Kilbaha, who had a son named James who was born in 1838. There were two Thomas Shanahans, one who married Brigid Sheehan and who had a daughter name Jane in 1838, and the other who married Brigid Nolan and had a daughter named Mary in 1862. However we have no evidence to connect these families to our Shanahan family.

In the course of my research I have also come across references to an Edmund Shanahan who was born in Kilbaha, Newtownsandes in 1841. Given Edmund's year of birth and the approximate year of birth of John above, it's unlikely Edmund was a son of John, but it is possible they were related given the surname and townland of birth. Edmund's story is therefore worth noting here:

Edmund became a Presentation brother, entering the novitiate at the South Monastery, Cork, in 1860 and taking Austin as his name in religion. Br. Austin became principal teacher in the South Monastery and in 1871 he was elected Superior of that school. From 1871 to 1874 he was very involved in the building of St. Joseph's Industrial School in Greenmount in Cork, and later, in 1880, he took charge of St. Vincent's School in Dartford, Kent, turning around its fortunes. Returning to Cork in 1882, he was once again elected Superior of the South Monastery. In 1889 Br. Austin was elected one of the four Assistants to the first Superior General of the Presentation order. In the late 1880s and early 1890s he travelled extensively in the United States, Australia and New Zealand collecting money to build a new novitiate at Mount St. Joseph in Cork. Br. Austin died on 24 October 1902 and is buried in the vault in the South Monastery.

The Shanahan surname is common throughout Munster and the south-east. The Shanahans were a sept of Thomond, an area which covered much of north Munster, but in 1318 they were expelled from the Sixmilebridge area of Co. Clare by Turlough O'Brien and the McNamaras. They were scattered throughout Munster, especially in counties Limerick, Cork and Waterford.