52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 4 Who would you invite for dinner?

There were several of my ancestors who I would love to sit down and talk about their lives.  Today I am going to invite Elizabeth McCrudden to the table.  She is the sister of my Great Grandmother Mary McCrudden Mathers.

Elizabeth McCrudden was born in Ireland somewhere after her sister Mary was born in 1844 and before her youngest sister, Ann in 1852.  I have not gotten the birth records yet!   Elizabeth’s sister Mary came to New York in 1868 (her second child was born in New York in July of 1868) and Elizabeth followed her along with 2 other sisters.

In 1876 Elizabeth McCrudden married George Mulraney in New York City.  I then find them in San Francisco, California where their first child, Catherine Mulraney, is born in February 1879.  George was a shoemaker so probably that was an occupation he could do anywhere.  Why all the way to California is the question I would love to ask of them. It must have been a wonderful and scary trip. I was picturing a horse and wagon kind of trip, but I found an article about the Transcontinental Express train. Apparently, in 1876 it took “a mere” 83 hours from New York City to San Francisco on the train. First-class passengers traveled the railroad line for business or pleasure, but the third-class occupants were often emigrants hoping to make a new start in the West. The third-class (I am pretty sure the Mulraney’s were in this class) cars were fitted with rows of narrow wooden benches, they were congested, noisy and uncomfortable.  The railroad often attached the coach cars to freight cars that were constantly shunted aside to make way for the express lines. Consequently, the third-class traveler’s journey west might take 10 or more days. Even under these trying conditions, few travelers complained. Even 10 days spent sitting on a hard bench seat was preferable to six months walking alongside a Conestoga wagon on the Oregon Trail.

This family was also in San Francisco during the famous 1906 earthquake.  What a harrowing experience that must have been.  The family’s home must have stayed in pretty good condition because they were there in the 1900 census and then still there in the 1910 census.

The other question I would ask Elizabeth and George Mulraney, how did they convince the other two sisters to join them.  Catherine McCrudden married James Callen and Theresa McCrudden married Daniel Boyle.  Both couples were married in New York City and made the long trip to California too.

There is an eyewitness account by Robert Louis Stevenson titled “Traveling on an Emigrant Train, 1879” on the web site eyewitnesstohistory.com. that I found really an eye opener for the way they had to travel in 1879.  I probably would have stayed in New York City.  On second thought I most likely would have stayed in Ireland!

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 3 Longevity

Blogger Amy Johnson Crowe started this 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks because family history is better when it’s shared.  This is a series of prompts to help share discoveries I’ve made in my genealogy.
This week’s prompt is Longevity!

Our anniversary is coming up in a few weeks and  I thought I would see if anyone in my family tree was married longer than us.  Of the people I have marriage dates for there were not many that even made it to 50 years.  We will be married 54 years.

My  3rd Great Grandparents, Tristram and Thankful Moore were married from 1802 until 1864 in Moore’s Mills, New Brunswick, Canada for 62 years.  Also, my Grandparents, John and Isabella Moore from 1918 until 1980 for 62 years.  No one in between those dates were married that long or even close on that side of either of my family lines.

My husband’s family has his Grandparents, Thomas and Florence Murphy, married from 1904 until 1958 for 54 years.  Also, his aunt and uncle, Frank and Florence Wipf were married from 1929 until 1987, 58 years.

I was thinking that nowadays things make being married a little easier with better medicines and healthier life styles, but there are my 3rd Great Grandparents in the early 1800’s who made it 62 years married.  I guess they were made of stronger Irish and Scots stock.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 2 Favorite Photo

The theme for this week is Favorite Photo.

This picture is of my Grandmother, Mamie McGuigan Mathews and her friends.  This photo was taken sometime between the time she came to America from Ireland in 1897 and the time she got married in 1909.

Mamie worked and lived at a hotel on Broadway in Manhattan, New York until she married and then lived on 73rd Street in New York City.  I have no idea where this was taken.  There are so many parks in the city, it could be anyone of them.  I have tried to see which ones had swing sets like this but haven’t found any photos showing swing sets in parks.  Always checking and hope to come up with an answer.

I was told by a cousin of my father that this is Mamie.  I just love how dressed up they all are but Mamie looks so serious, I wonder if she is having any fun!

#52Ancestors

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2018 - Week 1 Start

I was always interested in family history but didn’t truly start researching until the death of my grandfather.

My grandfather, John Nelson Moore, was born in Savannah, Georgia in 1889.  That was about the extent of my knowledge of his background.  At his funeral I was talking to his nephew, John Nelson Cosgrove, and he told me that the Moore family founded a small town in Canada.  I was flabbergasted how did the family start in Canada and end up in Savannah.

That was the time I started researching for real.  The next month my husband and I took a motorcycle ride up to MOORES MILLS, New Brunswick, Canada.  We found so much information about the family in the town, church, library  and archives.  It took me many years to put it all into a genealogy program and authenticate all the dates with certificates.  In the process, a second cousin of my mother who lives in the area in Canada, contacted me.

The surprises kept coming.  My grandfather’s grandfather, Horatio Nelson Moore was born in Moores Mills and helped his brother in a furniture and piano business.  This cousin had a house full of their furniture and had donated it to a living museum.

As you might have noticed the name Nelson has run through the family since Horatio Nelson Moore was born in 1825.  Of course, we figure he was named for the Admiral of the English Royal Navy of the same name.

FINDING A TOWNLAND IN IRELAND FOR THE O'CALLAHAN FAMILY

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.

HONORA QUINLAN MURPHY - KEEP CHECKING NEW DATABASES - SURPRISES AWAIT YOU

When you are doing genealogy research the hardest person to find is a female.  It was only in the early 20^th century that women had a legal say in anything.  Before that time when a woman took a husband she lost what limited freedom she might have had as a single adult. Those few married women who worked for pay could not control their own earnings. Most could neither buy nor sell property or sign contracts; none could vote, sue when wronged, defend themselves in court, or serve on juries. In the rare case of divorce, women lost custody of their children and any family possessions.

On August 26, 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. With it, 17 million women won for themselves that most basic promise of democracy: the right to vote, but were still not equal to the men in legal documents.  The only time a women might have land or money is if her husband was incapacitated or she is a widow.  There were some women who had their own companies but mostly through the death of a family member.

All this has always given me a hard time finding information about the Great Grandmother of my husband.  She was Honora Quinlan Murphy born in Ireland and died in New York in 1908.  I have her in the 1870 census to 1905 census but do not know where she was born or married.  She married John Murphy and had their first child, Mary in 1873 in New York.

When I am researching using Ancestry.com there are always hints for the people in my family tree I have on the web site.  I usually check the hints, but some are just not worth considering.  Well the other day as I was checking the hints one came up for a will for Honora Murphy.  I figured I would check it out, not that I thought it was my Honora Murphy, there are thousands of Honora/Nora Murphy on Ancestry.com.  It was my Honora Murphy, what a surprise.

The information on this Petition for Probate tells me that this is our Honora Quinlan Murphy.

·        She lived in Brooklyn, New York in all the census that I found with her and her family.

·        She died 19 February 1908 NY Death Cert. #3801

·        Her husband had died before her.  John Murphy died 14 April 1891 NY Death Cert #6073

·        Her three children listed are correct.  Thomas is my husband’s Grandfather. Mary who married Edward McEvoy and Margaret who married James Coyne.

The most surprising part of this petition was the amount of money Honora Quinlan Murphy left to her children.

The $3,000.00 was a considerable amount of money in 1908.  Some on-line money converters indicate that amount in this day would be between $60,000 and $80,000. The average wage earner in 1908 made about $400 a year.  My question was how did she get that much money.  Her husband was a plasterer, not a very high paying job and he died 20 plus years before.

That got me thinking maybe John Murphy left a will.  I did not find one although there might be one.  There are just too many John Murphy’s in the index to figure which one is his even going by the year 1891.  So I looked for more Quinlan’s and I found Honora’s sister Margaret.  Margaret never married and left $1,000.00 to Honora Murphy and Alexander Quinlan her sister and brother.  It also indicates she had bank accounts but doesn’t say how much is in them.  Margaret Quinlan died in 1904 so that is where Honora got some of her money.

This is such a wonderful find considering most women didn’t own anything and didn’t have a career.  Finding 2 women, sisters too, that have left wills with substantial amounts of money is a gold mine in genealogy.

I did get another surprise in Margaret’s will, the brother Alexander, I had never heard and seen any indication that there was a brother named Alexander.

More to research!

ELIZABETH AGNES MOORE - SISTER OF MY GRANDFATHER, JOHN N. MOORE

In my May 9, 2016 Blog “Crashed Through One of My Brick Wall” I indicated that my Grandfather’s sister Elizabeth Agnes Moore had never married.

Thanks to my cousin Jill, I was told that Elizabeth, or Bessie as was known, was married.  After finding that out I researched on Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org and found several documents to confirm the information.  I also remembered Jill’s father, John Cosgrove telling me he had a cousin with the name Lemuel.  That cousin was the child of Bessie and her husband Lemuel A. Holley.

I find Bessie with her family, father Tristram and mother, Jennie in the 1900 census. Then in the 1910 census she is with just her mother, brother, John and sister Annie.  I have not found her marriage certificate but her son, Lemuel Jr. is born June 17, 1915 and the Savannah city directory of 1916 has her living with her husband Lemuel at Price St.

In the 1920 census they are living in Atlanta, Georgia with their 4-year-old son Lemuel Jr.  It indicates Bessie’s husband Lemuel is a commercial traveler (I think that means salesman) for a cigar company. In the 1930 census they have moved again to Shreveport, Louisiana, probably because of his continued employment with the Cigar company. I cannot find either Bessie or her husband in the 1940 census.  My cousin also thought she met Bessie Moore Holley and that would have to be late 1940’s or early 1950’s.  I will keep searching for their death certificates.