[This memorial is created with the permission and endorsement of relative and family historian, Bill Gawne.]

Ellen "Nell" Sullivan was born November 3, 1901 in Inches, Eyeries, County Cork, Ireland.

Her parents were:

Daniel Sullivan b: 26 Dec 1867 in Inches, Eyries Parish, County Cork c: 26 Dec 1867 in Inches, Eyeries Parish, County Cork, Ireland, d. 1912, Eyeries Parish, County Cork, Ireland, and

Mother: Mary Ann Lowney b: 31 Mar 1880 in Derimihen West, Castletownbere, County Cork, Ireland c: 1 Apr 1880 in Castletownbere, Cork, Ireland, d. 5 December 1949 in Derimihen West, Castletownbere, County Cork, Ireland.

Both of Nell's parents are buried in Lower Foildarig Cemetery, Castletownbere, County Cork, Ireland.

Nell's siblings included:
Jeremiah, Julia Josephine "Sister Consolata," Mary "Mae," Michael, Margaret "Peg," and Agnes M.

Her half-siblings (from her mother's marriage to John "Jack" Fox after Nell's father died) include:
Patrick D. Fox; and the infant twin sister of Pat.

Maureen Ryan Gawne Ybarra told her son Bill Gawne the following:
My aunt Mary Anne was a widow in 1912, and came to America to live with her sister Agnes and bring her oldest two daughters, Mae and Nell. She left the others with her mother in Derimihan. Castletownbere. In time Mary married again and that was to Jack Fox, and they had a son, Partick. and a little girl who died at birth. They were twins. That was in Butte Mt. and Jack and Maryanne then returned to her farm in Inches, Eyeries.

Here is Nell's Ellis Island record:
Ellis Island record:
First Name: Nellie
Last Name: Sullivan
Ethnicity: British Irish
Last Place of Residence: ..., Ireland
Date of Arrival: Jun 11, 1916
Age at Arrival: 11y Gender: F Marital Status: S
Ship of Travel: Philadelphia
Port of Departure: Liverpool
Manifest Line Number: 0007
Nellie Sullivan Arrival Date: 12 Jun 1916 Birth Year: abt 1905 Birth Loc.: Ireland Birth Loc. Other: castletown bear Age: 11 Female Ethnicity/Race/Nat.: Irish Port of Dep.:Liverpool, England Port of Arrival: NY. With Mary age 34; Mary age 16

Here is more from Maureen Elizabeth Ryan Gawne to her son Bill Gawne:
Lived with Pierce and Agnes Powers in Butte Montana as a child.
Nell Twomey (Sullivan) she was indeed as nice as could be to all of us and a real fine example of how to behave in the world. At one time of her life she worked for the Detroit Golf Club (which was a posh place) and Standard Oil in New York City, on the great Wall Street. and then had her own shop in Linden, NJ. She taught me how to write when I was about three and healing my broken arm.
Nellie went to school to be a clerical person, bookkeeper, etc.she also stayed with Agnes and Pierce.
Nell died in Tucson, Arizona, just a few weeks after her sister Agnes.
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According to the 1930 US Federal Census, in 1930 the family was living at 33 Tyler Ave., Highland Park, Wayne, Michigan, USA
Household members included:
Household Members: Name Age James Ryan 39; Katherine Ryan 37; Maureen Ryan; Nellie Sullivan 27; Patrick Ryan 26; Peter Ryan 23; Frank Scully 32; Leo Conway 28; and Leo Schonning 23.

The following is an email exchange between family historian Bill Gawne and Cherie Jameison.

Date: Tue, 09 May 2006 07:14:18 -0400

CHERIE: Looking at that [1930] census, it touches me to think that there they all were, dining together--your grandfather James Ryan, your grandmother Catherine Lowney Ryan, their daughter (your mother) Maureen Elizabeth Ryan, James' brothers Patrick and Peter Ryan, and cousin Nell Sullivan. And as they're sitting at the table taking their meals, there would be your mother-a precious little girl less than a year old, the darling of her family. How they must have adored her and made a fuss over her!

BILL: Talking about my grandmother's dining room table... let me tell you about that table. The last time I saw it was last summer. It's in my aunt Marnie's dining room now, in Windsor. (Marnie is my father's only sister.) My grandmother gave it to Marnie when the old house was sold in 1969, and my mother took it across the Detroit river via a couple of station wagon loads. It's a big mahogany thing that can, with all the leaves installed, seat twelve for dinner. Many's the time I've sat at it myself.
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In Aug 1936 in Linden, New Jersey, Nell married John Twomey.
John was born 26 Jun 1898 in Castletownbere, County Cork, Ireland, and he died Aug 1971 in Linden, New Jersey.

Bill Gawne's mother, Maureen Ryan Gawne Ybarra said that Nell and her husband John Twomey also had one little girl, Mary Catherine, who died in early childhood.
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From Maureen in her emails to Cherie J. of 25 November 2008, and used here with her permission:

Nell Sullivan Twomey was one of the greatest persons in my young days as she lived with Mom (Catherine Lowney Ryan) and Daddy (James Ryan) and me.

She worked then at the Detroit Golf and Country Club doing the bookkeeping there until her boy friend (later her husband) John Twomey went to New Jersey to work for Standard Oil in about 1935. Nell then went to join and marry him in 1936, so she still kept after me, to make sure I could write properly to her. She had such great handwriting due to her profession.

Nell worked for an Indian tribe on her first job, over in Montana, as a bookkeeper, and stayed there for about six months. All this was after she graduated from business school in Butte, Montana. Then she left to return to live with Agnes Lowney Powers and Pierce Powers and later to move to Detroit and much later to New York City.

When she finally arrived in NYC she worked for Standard Oil in their offices in the Empire State Building. One day this rather large gentleman of Indian extraction, with feathers and all, came into the office. When he did he loudly announced, "My goodness, Ms. Nellie, what are you doing here??" Nell told me this about thirty years ago, as she remember him too, as
the chief of the Blackfoot Tribe, for which she had worked long before.

Nell and her husband John Twomey also had one little girl, Mary Catherine, who died in early childhood. When my Kathy had her Mary Catherine, Nell made the trip from Tucson, then, to California to see the baby and give Kathleen and David her congratulations, etc.

Then after the death of the baby girl, she opened a shoppe to make/alter ladies garments for the wealthy women of that area, which was in Linden, New Jersey.

Nell had a good American education due to staying with my Aunt Agnes Lowney Powers and Uncle Pierce Powers, who thought of her as a daughter, like they did later with me.

Due to all of this education, she made good money always, and if there was a difficulty in the family, she worked it out for her siblings and later even for me. When she came to Tucson, she stayed in an apartment near her sister Agnes Foley, and of course my kids loved her dearly. She was also a great cook, and would have us visit often.
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