Josephine was the youngest of Timothy O’CALLAGHAN’s children, born to his second wife Margaret (O’Brien) on March 12th, 1888.
Josephine, aged 24 years, married Joseph Francis “Joe” OLLIVERE, a dental surgeon of Crosshaven, on 25 June 1907. The parish priest of her former parish, the North Cathedral Cork, married her. Timothy O’CALLAGHAN was recorded as a Master Tailor on the marriage certificate. The marriage was witnessed by Thomas OLLIVERE, Joseph’s brother, and Christina O’CALLAGHAN, Josephine’s older sister.
We can see that Josephine gave her residence at the time of marriage as Crosshaven. Perhaps Crosshaven was a favoured family holiday spot. I am uncertain whether her address reads ‘The front’ or ‘The point’. [1] The Point is a named area of Crosshaven. Could this have been where Christina was when she died, nine years after her younger sister married?
The Irish Examiner ran a notice on 27 June, and Josephine was recorded as Josephine P.
Joseph was the son of Joseph Francis OLLIVERE, also a dental surgeon who practiced dentistry at 60 South Mall, Cork. The OLLIVERE men have a history of dentistry. Thomas who witnessed the marriage of Joseph and Josephine also practiced dentistry in Cork city and took on his father’s business at 60 South Mall.[2]
In the 1911 census, Joseph and Josephine ‘JoJo’ (O’Callaghan) OLLIVERE lived at 68 South Main St, Bandon. They were four years married and had no children. A servant lived with them. It appears they lived above the dental surgery.
There is no record of any of my Cork family (FURLONG, O’CALLAGHAN, HYLAND, EGAN, or DAVIS) owning a motor car, suggesting they were very much a rarity. However, in 1916 OLLIVERE, J.F., 22 South Main St, Bandon, was listed as a car owner.
After the death of Margaret (O’Brien) O’CALLAGHAN on 8th December 1919, Timothy’s second wife and mother of Christina and JoJo, the following notice appeared in the Irish Examiner of Saturday 20 December:
Joe OLLIVERE’s dental practice appears in the Bandon directories over the years, at 22 South Main Street.
There is no record of the birth of any children to Joseph and Josephine.
The couple had two Pomeranian dogs, evidenced by the 1921 licencing by Joe OLLIVERE of South Main St. of his black female Pom dog and white male.
On Monday Jan 26, 1925 the Irish Examiner ran the list of cases from the Cork Circuit Court which included:
Slattery v. Ollivere – In this case (heard during the week) Elizabeth Slattery, Bandon, sought to recover from Joseph F. Ollivere, Bandon, a sum of £29, 5s, 3d., being the balance of the bill for £39, 5s, 3d for hire of motor cars, repairs to a car and petrol, and other requisites supplied by plaintiffs to defendant.
A decree for £25, 12 s and 0d was given. Mr J. A. McCarthy (instructed by Mr. Neville, solr, Bandon) appeared for plaintiff, and Mr. P. J. O’Driscoll, for the defendant.
This article could suggest that Joe OLLIVERE may have had been financially unreliable, however the next article indicates that he was still esteemed in the Bandon community. A notice appeared in the Southern Star on Saturday May 21, 1938 with the headline Dentist Bereaved. It read:
Deepest sympathy is extended to Mr. Joseph Ollivere, L.D.S., South Main St, Bandon, a highly respected member of the community, on the sad bereavement occasioned him by the death of his brother, Mr. Thos Joseph Ollivere, L.D.S., 60 South Mall, Cork. The late Mr. Ollivere had an extensive practice in Cork City, and was also well-known in sporting circles, being an exceptionally keen yachtsman. He leaves a widow, two sons and two daughters to mourn his loss.
Thomas, Joe’s older brother, was aged 56 when he died of heart disease.
The 1945 directory for Bandon shows J. Ollivere still practising dentistry on South Main Street, and a T.J. Ollivere, surgeon and dentist also in the town.
Joe Ollivere survived his brother by almost 15 years. He died 16th March 1953, aged 70, of carcinoma of the stomach and seems to have avoided the heart disease that killed his father and brother. There is no record of a will in the Calendar of grants of probate of wills and letters of administration made in the Probate Office and its district registries for the period of 1953 – 1960.
For a long time, the only further record I could find of a Josephine OLLIVERE was that of what turned out to be her spinster sister-in-law Josephine in Passage West, who had died in St. Finbar’s Cork city, leaving a substantial Georgian home, naming her sister Mrs. Annette Egan as grantee. There was clearly money in the OLLIVERE family.
What happened to our Josephine (O’Callaghan) OLLIVERE? A record on My Heritage shows Joseph Francis married Josephine “Patricia” O’CALLAGHAN. This explains the P. in the marriage notice in the Irish Examiner. Patricia may have been JoJo’s confirmation name, as it was not given to her at birth.
On an appropriately dreich summer’s day I finally found Josephine. It had taken months of searching and the pursuit of red, although very interesting, herrings. Pursuing the theory that Joe did not have a will actioned because he was survived by a wife, I found JoJo’s will and date of death. Josephine (O’Callaghan) OLLIVERE had made it to 73 years, dying on 29th May 1961.
£392 is the equivalent of about £8,400 in 2018.
JoJo’s death certificate was difficult to find initially, as her surname had been misspelt. She died of ‘senility’ at the Cottage Hospital in Bandon.
A death notice appeared in the Irish Examiner on Wednesday May 31, 1961:
We can see here that JoJo was recorded with the name Patricia despite it not being her legal name, and that she was buried in Cork, in St Joseph’s Cemetery, Ballyphehane. [3]
Why did the next generations of our family not know of this half-sister? We can only surmise.
[1] There was no hotel in Crosshaven with a name similar to this in 1907.
A Miss M. Daly ran a shop “The Point”. While J.F.Ollivere was listed as a dentist in Bandon in the 1907 directory there was no listing of him in Crosshaven. There is no listing of O’Callaghan in Crosshaven or Bandon.
[2] Evidenced by his death certificate.
[3] There is no record of Joe’s father having been buried in St Joseph’s after his death in 1907. Josephine was reportedly buried at St Joseph’s with her O’Callaghan family rather than with her husband.
In Search of Thomas Davis 