I began to seriously start looking into the Murray/Coleman
side of the family history in January, 2012. I knew my Coleman great-grandparents emigrated from Ireland around 1900
and settled in San Francisco (with a short side-stay in New Jersey in the late
1910s/early 1920s) and that the information I would most easily be able to
access would be things I already knew – my grandmother’s siblings, their
spouses, children and grandchildren. Everything
else prior to 1900, give or take a few years, would have to come from access to
records from Ireland. Because of this,
I decided to set the Colemans to one side for the moment and focus on the
Murrays first.
No one in the family knows a whole lot about the Murray
branch of the tree, but I knew both of my Murray great-grandparents had been
born in San Francisco and that my great-grandfather’s name was the same as my
grandfather’s – Marshall Edward Murray – and that he was a teamster, so I
decided to start my search with him. I
found him almost immediately in the 1900 census living on Tehama Street. What I didn’t expect to find was that he was
living with his mother and two brothers and two sisters! What’s this? No one knew that my grandfather had aunts and uncles; could that
mean there are Murray cousins running about that no one has ever heard of? What a find!
Of course, this led to the first of what I’m sure will be
many frustrations. His mother’s name
was only listed as “B. Murray” – great, what does “B.” stand for? – and his
siblings were named John, Joseph, Mary, and Nellie – fantastic, 3 really common
names and a possible nickname! So, who
should I focus on first? I decided to
take on my great-great grandmother “B.” and see what I could find. A few hits and misses as I dug around the
available on-line records, when I finally turned up a Bridget Murray living on
Tehama Street in the 1896 San Francisco city directory. The address was slightly different than the
one in the 1900 census, but the 1897 city directory had her at the same
address, and this time Marshall also showed up. They showed up again in 1898, this time with John also. By 1899 they appeared at the same address as
I had found in the 1900 census. I’d
found the right family.
There’s no 1902 directory available on line and Bridget
disappears in 1903, but she turns up again in the 1904 and 1905 directories at
a different address, this time on Clementina Street and Marshall and Joseph are
living with her. There is no 1906 directory
due to the earthquake and fire (I assume), but Bridget turns up once again in
1907 with her sons Marshall and Joseph.
I kept tracking “Bridget Murray, widow” through the 1915 directories,
but after 1907 none of her children turn up at the same address. To make sure I was still tracking the same
Bridget Murray, I returned to the census records and tried to find her in
1910. I find a Bridget Murray living at
one of the addresses I’ve noted down for her, but upon checking, I discover
that it’s a different Bridget Murray as the ages don’t match up nor do the
people she’s living with. That wiped
out nearly 10 years of addresses for Bridget.
I did find Joseph living at the last good address I had for Bridget in
the 1908 city directory, but she wasn’t living with him. Was it possible she died sometime between
1907-1908? I still had addresses for
Bridget Murray in 1912 & 1915, so I’ll have to check back on that later.
Having gotten to a sticking point with Bridget, I decided to
turn my attention to Marshall, my great-grandfather. I started digging around and found him living on Natoma Street in
the 1920 census, which matches up with some of what my parents told me about my
grandfather’s childhood. By this time
he’s married to my great-grandmother Mary Mullane and my grandfather Marshall,
Jr. has been born. Also living with
them is Marshall’s brother Joseph who, according to the census record, is
married, but there’s no wife living with him.
Another mystery to figure out.
Then I encounter the next frustration. It turns out that both my great-grandfather
and my grandfather liked to switch their names around, so sometimes they are
Marshall Edward and other times they are Edward Marshall. Oh joy. Fortunately, I know that by the time I got to know my grandfather, he
went primarily by Edward Marshall, so from here forward Grandpa Murray will be
referred to as Edward and his father will be referred to as Marshall.
Marshall, Mary and Edward show up again in the 1930 census,
now living on 10th Street. As I look at the addresses I’ve found, I notice that they are all within
a few blocks of one another except for the 1907-1908 address for Bridget and
Joseph. I try to find an early 1900s
map of San Francisco on line, and the best I can find is one that shows where
the 1906 fire burned the city. Yep, as
I suspected, my Murray family lived inside the fire zone. I wonder what they did after the fire, where
did they live? Were they among the many
who camped out in Golden Gate Park? I
suspect it’s likely, but who knows if I’ll ever find concrete proof of that.
I decided to do a little more picking around on Marshall’s
brothers, John and Joseph, to see what I could find, but with such common first
names it’s a bit spotty. I know from
the city directories that John’s middle name starts with an H. and Joseph’s
middle name starts with an S. That’s
some help, and I find a voter registration record for John in 1898 that
indicates his middle name is Henry and he’s working as a longshoreman. It also has a description of him as 5’ 9”,
dark complexion, blue eyes, and dark hair. Well, it’s a start. I get a
couple of false leads on Joseph – it seems there are at least two Joseph S.
Murrays living in San Francisco at the time who were born around 1880.
I’m pretty pleased with what I turned up after a few days of
research, but of course, for every bit of new information I find, new questions
come up. What was Bridget’s husband’s
name? When did he die? When did they come to San Francisco? When did they come to the US? Where in Ireland are they from? Who is Joseph’s wife? Why isn’t she living with him in 1920? Where’s John Henry after 1900? What happened to Mary and Nellie? Did they marry? If so, who? Why aren’t
any of the Murrays showing up in the 1910 census? And what about the Mullanes? Who were my great-grandmother’s parents? Did she have any siblings? Where in San Francisco did they live?
Coming Next:
Eureka!
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