52 Ancestors 52 Weeks. - I Can Identify

When you are researching Irish relatives, you must know the town and county they lived in to find the exact family and to find more ancestors.

Our Murphy family all originated in Ireland.  This is according to the census records I have found for the different families.

Most of the census just say they came from Ireland.  The few marriage and death records only state Ireland as their place of birth.

I was working on my husband’s grandmother, Florence McDonald Murphy.  I found her Marriage record and her Death record.  In both certificates she stated her father was Owen McDonald and her mother was Mary Ann Callahan.  I couldn’t find her Birth certificate but she always indicated she was born in New York.

I searched further looking at her siblings.  They all indicated the same parents and that they were born in New York.   I checked the death certificate for Mary Ann Callahan McDonald and it indicated her parents Callahan O’Callahan and Julia O’Brien both born in Ireland.  Of course it didn’t give the town just Ireland.

I looked at all the census records for Florence and her siblings.  In one I noticed an Ellen Callahan living with Florence’s sister,Ellen McDonald Fitzgerald.  They lived together for many years, until Ellen Callahan died in 1921.  I believed she was the sister of Mary Callahan McDonald, mother of Ellen McDonald Fitzgerald.  I searched for Ellen Callahan’s death certificate and obituary. The death certificate confirmed that they were sisters, listing the same parents as was mentioned in Mary Callahan McDonald’s death certificate.

The obituary was an exciting surprise,  I can identify, finally, a place in Ireland for part of the Murphy family.

The obituary indicates the place of birth for Ellen Callahan as Castletown Roach, County Cork, Ireland.  It also lists her parents and nieces including Florence McDonald Murphy.

Brooklyn Eagle Newspaper

22 April 1921 page 22

(Web site Bklyn.newspapers.com)