Between 1886 and 1921 the Keane family of Clashmore, County Waterford, sent eleven surviving letters to their migrant sister Mary, who had settled at Wellington. These letters placed a range of obligations on Mary. Both Mary and another migrant sister, Bridget, residing in Otago, were clearly expected to communicate regularly with the family: ‘I hope Bridget will write and let us know how she is getting on & if she dont tis the most she can do as not’ (Ke 1). The consequences of Mary's silence were also keenly felt. A friend ‘was very mad as you did not write to her’ (Ke 1). Another sister, Kate, who settled in London, also conveyed her deep disappointment in Mary, some two decades after Mary's departure: ‘All the years you have left home you have not written to me’ (Ke 4).

Mary Keane's communications, however, may have been subjected to the precarious transmission of correspondence. In 1886, her brother John puzzled, ‘you spoke about writing so many letters home to Ireland. All the letters ever I read from ye was four two from Bridget & Two from Your-self’ (Ke 2). Alternatively, Mary may have exaggerated her writing activities to counteract these complaints from home, leaving her family to surmise as to the whereabouts of so many letters. When, eventually, Kate received word from Mary, she exclaimed gleefully, ‘Words in writing fail to express my joy to receive a letter from you after all these years’ (Ke 5).

Apart from news, the exchange of correspondence among the Keane family also contained photographs. In 1918, approximately forty years after Mary’s departure, Kate sought a photograph for the purposes of recollection:

In response to this letter Mary sent a photograph of her son, prompting Kate to claim enthusiastically, ‘I could at once recall your face Mary as I knew you at home, the same expression’ (Ke 11).