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Joseph was born in Dublin, Ireland on Sunday, April 2, 1854 to Michael and Catherine (nee Garland) O'Keeffe. Very little is know about his early days other than the fact that his parents survived the potato famine from 1846 to 1851 and that conditions had improved enough to again bring children into this world in Ireland. Dublin, the second largest city in Great Britain, is the capitol of Ireland and in 1854 had a population of approximately 260,000. It is located in County Dublin in the province of Leinster about mid-point near the east coast of Ireland.

Joseph married Catherine Kearns on November 3, 1872 in the Catholic Chapel of SS Michael & John in South Dublin when he was 18 and she was 19. Prior to that Joseph was living at 7 Linnenhall Street in South Dublin's Registrar's District of Mo 2 South City. Rev. John O'Hanlon officiated and Matthew O'Reilly and Mary Dunne were witnesses at the ceremony. Their first child, Elizabeth, was born May 28, 1874 in Dublin when Catherine was 21 years old. Early marriage was fairly common back in those days especially with life expectancy somewhere in the forties.

Their second child, Harry, was born November 12, 1876 in Dublin. Elizabeth was 2 ½ when Harry was born. The next thing we know about them is that the family traveled to Liverpool, England and sailed to America arriving on May 1, 1883. Joseph was 29 and the children were age almost 9 and 6 respectively. Somehow they settled in Cleveland, Ohio. He appeared in the Cleveland City Directory in 1883 and was a carpenter by trade as was his father. Their last name was sometimes spelled with a double f, especially in the early days. He filed his Declaration of Intention (to become a citizen) or First Papers on March 3, 1890 in Common Pleas Court in Cleveland.

On August 17, 1891, Elizabeth married Henry J. Billinghurst who had arrived just two years earlier from Devonshire, England on May 7, 1889. Since she was under age 18 (only 17 at the time), Joseph had to sign for her giving his consent to the marriage. By 1892, Henry was also listed in the City Directory as a carpenter and there's a good probability that Joseph helped his new son-in-law obtain that skill. On October 25, 1892, Joseph filed his Petition for Naturalization or Final Papers in US Federal District Court in Cleveland and received his US citizenship that day. Catherine and Harry automatically became citizens that same day. Joseph's original naturalization document is kept with the family historical documents.

After renting at several different locations in Cleveland, the family lived at 34 Korman from 1896 until 1911. In 1906, streets and/or addresses were changed across Cleveland and 34 Korman became 8010 Korman (just a couple blocks south of St. Clair Avenue and East 80th Street). Joseph probably lived the life of a fairly typical Irish Catholic family man working at a skilled trade.

In 1908, a house was built at 12413 Ferris Avenue and this became the family home by 1914. There is a good chance that Joseph and his son-in-law, Henry Billinghurst were involved with the construction of this house. The location is just over a mile from Calvary Cemetery. According to tax records, Joseph and "Kate" bought the house on January 13, 1914. This house remained "home" for many members of the family until it was sold in 1942.

Joseph died September 30, 1914 from Carcinoma of the stomach from which he suffered under a doctor's care for about a year. His wake was held at the family home and after a Requiem Mass at Holy Name Catholic Church, he was laid to rest in section 24 lot 21, a three grave plot in Calvary Cemetery. He was 60 years old and was married 41 years. His headstone and cemetery records erroneously show his date of birth as 1859.

Postscripts: Joseph's great great grandson, Joseph Ripley McFarland Jr., apparently bears enough likeness to his great great grandfather that his co-workers thought that a photo of Joseph O'Keefe on his desk was actually the younger Joseph dressed in period costume with a handlebar mustache added for good measure.

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