Ellen Mary Malarkey (nee Walsh) was my great great grandaunt. Her father Thomas Walsh was a butcher/grocer/inn keeper in High Street, Limerick. Her brother, my great great grandfather, also Thomas started out as a butcher in Limerick, then became station master in Boher as the railways were developing, after he retired he was an inn keeper/guest house keeper in Limerick.
Ellen and Thomas are the only two siblings and children I know of the senior Thomas Walsh. I suspect there were probably others
Ellen migrated from Limerick in the mid-nineteenth century, she probably went to New York. Her family I suspect were not in poverty, nor were they rich, they were traders/shop keepers/blue collar workers in Limerick City.
It's interesting to imagine the journey Ellen made from Limerick first to the East Coast of the USA, probably New York. Then later she would have traversed the United States the last part by wagon on the "Oregon Trail". She would have been associated with the Oregon Pioneers. There she married a man who did quite well, Danial Malarkey, a widow who had children from his first wife. Ellen and Daniel had two other children.
Ellen remained in contact with her family back in Limerick. In the late 19th Century, two of her nephews from Limerick, sons of her brother Thomas (my great great grandfather), were staying as lodgers with her in Portland, Oregon.
Ellen passed away in 1912 in Oregon, a Limerick Lady in Portland.
The Mallarkey family descendants still live I believe in Oregon, one of them was a senator for Oregon.
