Josephine is my grandmother.

She was born Josephine Agnes Loughnan on 13 December 1874 at 4 Slaney Place, Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, Ireland. Her parents were James and Mary Loughnan.

Josephine attended the Loretto Convent in Enniscorthy, where she came eighteenth in the Junior Girls Grade in the 1887 County Wexford examinations. She became a Governess, although her marriage certificate gives her occupation, when she moved to Belfast, as "salewoman".

In Belfast, Josephine lived in Cooke Street. She married Benjamin Norman Palmer, on 05 August 1900 at the Holy Rosary Church, Belfast, Ireland. She moved to Avonbeg Street, Clifton, Belfast. After April 1902, the couple lived in 39 Sandhurst Gardens, Belfast. About 1903, they moved to Derry, when her husband set up a small accountancy practice in the City. The family lived at 4 Grafton Terrace in Rosemount, before settling some time after 1910 at 17 High Street, in the heart of the Bogside. They had six children, Benjamin Gerard, Margaret, Anne, the twins Olive and Muriel and Florence.

After the death of her husband in 1914, her daughters Margaret and Anne left the convent where they were being educated, and worked in the local shirt factory. Josephine took in needlework to make ends meet. I believe that the family also relied on food parcels from Aunt Stacie in Enniscorthy (possibly Stacie O'Leary, who was recorded in the 1911 census). It is not clear why the family did not move back to Enniscorthy after 1914, or to Benjamin Norman's parents in Dublin.

Josephine came to London with her son Benny in 1936, and lived at 40 Avonmore Road, London W14, where she was known to her grandchildren as "Mamó" (the Irish word for grandmother). Josephine died in the Ducane Hospital, Hammersmith on 27 September 1940 and is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery in West London.