The following obituary, although in places factually inaccurate, provides the means of identifying Sarah McGovern (ms Shaw) as a daughter of Thomas Kirk Shaw. It appears that Sarah was the first member of the family to emigrate.
“Sarah McGovern (Obituary in the Roslyn Miner-Echo, Friday, June 27, 1941)
Funeral services were held Wednesday, 2 p. m., at the home of Mayor J. C. McGovern, for Mrs. Sarah McGovern, 79, pioneer resident of the Upper County, who died Sunday after an illness of two years.
The Pythian Sisters, of which she was a charter member and elected first senior when Myrtle Temple No. 21 at Roslyn was established 42 years ago, had charge of the services. The Rev. Robert R. Ferguson and the Rev, Wm. A Gilbert officiated.
Born in Scotland, August 24, 1881, she was married to James McGovern there. They came to Roslyn in 1890, where Mrs. McGovern has made her home for 51 years.
Mr. McGovern died in 1928. Mayor (J Cornelius Neal) McGovern (prev. Bell) was adopted by Mr & Mrs. McGovern in 1893 when his parents died.
She is also survived by three nephews, William and James Shaw of Roslyn, Sam Shaw of Ronald. Tom Wallace of Cle Elum and a niece, Mrs. Elizabeth Johnson of Bellingham and two grand-children, Miriam and Edward”.
Sarah McGovern’s dates of birth do not match. Thomas Kirk Shaw’s daughter, Sarah, was born in Cabusnethan, Lanark on 25th August 1865 (GRO). The discrepancy may simply be typographical. No Scottish record has been found of a marriage between a James McGovern and a Sarah Shaw.
Sarah Shaw married James McGovern in 1880 at Braidwood, Illinois. James was a Coal Miner. They and Cornelius were resident in Roslyn in 1900.
James and Sarah divorced before 1910 when Sarah was running a boarding house in Mountain, Kittitas, Washington. (See 1910 Federal Census).
In 1922-23, Sarah was renting room and board at 4 Utah Ave.W, according to the Kittitas County Directory.
James McGovern died on 31 August 1935 in Geneva, Indiana.
Sarah died, age 79, on 22 June 1941 at Roslyn, Kittitas.
Corroboratory evidence of family connection in the obituary, however, is the reference to her nephews – William, James and Sam Shaw (sons of James Shaw and Helen McManus); and daughter, Elizabeth Johnson.