Shea / Skelly

Hi,

I'm researching my mother's family and have hit a brick wall with my third great-grandparents, Michael Shea and Mary Skelly, who I think were probably born sometime between 1810-20 and married in the 1840s.

My second great-grandfather, also Michael Shea, was born in Ireland c. 1846-7, ended up in Scotland sometime around 1870 and died in Greenock in 1906. He appears in the 1871 Scottish census living in Glasgow, his age listed as 25, his birthplace as 'C. Tipperary' and his occupation as 'mason' (he was a bricklayer). So far I haven't been able to narrow his birthplace down to a particular parish.

I only know Michael junior's parents' names from his Scottish marriage and death records. Michael was married twice, in 1873 and again in 1893 after being widowed. It appears his parents were still alive in 1873 as they aren't listed as deceased on the marriage record from that year, but they were dead by the time of his second marriage. Michael senior's occupation is listed on his son's Scottish marriage records as 'cartwright' and 'farm labourer' respectively.

By 1893 the family name had been altered to Shaw, presumably to make them sound more Scottish (they also converted to Presbyterianism). Michael also gave his name as Shaw in 1871, but it seems unlikely that his relatives in Ireland would have gone by the same - the aforementioned 1873 marriage record lists Michael's name as Shea and all of his children (there were seven of them) were born as Sheas.

Obviously, I know I'm delving quite a long way back into the mists of time and that records from that period are sparse, but I'd be grateful for any help anyone can provide about the Shea/Skelly connection.