Thomas L. Murphy
Father Thomas N. Murphy
Grandparents Thomas
J. Murphy & Florence McDonald
Great Grandparents John Murphy & Honora Quinlan Owen McDonald & MARY O’CALLAHAN
I have researched for a long time trying to find where in
Ireland this side of the family originated. The O’CALLAHAN family is the family
of my husband’s paternal Great Grandmother Mary O’CALLAHAN. Mary O’CALLAHAN was
the youngest daughter of Callahan O’CALLAHAN and Julia O’BRIEN. She had two brothers, Patrick and John and
three sisters Joanne, Margaret and Ellen who were all born in Ireland. Mary was
born in New York. I have not found her birth record but she probably was born
between 1839 and 1853. Her mother Julia O’BRIEN
O’ CALLAHAN died in 1853 in New York.
Mary married Owen MCDONALD about 1866 in New York and I have
her in census records and death records.
Owen MCDONALD and Mary O’CALLAHAN had 7 children, George, Oscar,
Blanche, Ida, Ellen, Gertrude and Florence.
In some of the census records I have found Ellen O’CALLAHAN living with
the MCDONALD family as sister-in-law to Owen MCDONALD. This was how I found the maiden name of Mary MCDONALD. The break through to finding the town the O’CALLAHAN
family originated from in Ireland was from the obituary of Ellen O’CALLAHAN in
1921 in New York.
Brooklyn Eagle Page 22, April
22, 1921 (Bklyn.newspapers.com)
I searched the parish records for the town of
Castletownroche, County Cork, Ireland on the web site for the National Library
in Ireland (NIL.ie) and found the birth records for the 5 children born to
Callahan O’CALLAHAN and Julia O’BRIEN and their marriage record.
Callahan O’CALLAHAN and Julia O’BRIEN were married 26 April
1826 in Castletownroche
All the brothers and sisters of Mary were born in
Castletownroche
Joanne was born 4 June 1829
Patrick was born 25 April 1831
Ellen was born 24 August 1833
John was born 4 November 1835
Margaret was born 25 July 1838
More and more records are becoming available on-line that
will help in the research of family histories.
Many of the Irish parish registers are now on-line and can
be viewed for free. You must have the
parish that the family came from not just the county. Many newspapers are being
put on-line now, some like the Brooklyn Eagle are free but there are fee paying
web sites that have newspapers also such as GenealogyBank.com, Archive.com,
Newspapers.com and Ancestry.com.
