I've been having difficulty in locating my Murray ancestors in the 1880 census -- they're not turning up in the general searches I've run. I've found where they were living in the San Francisco City directory for 1880 and the census takers recorded addresses, so I've been paging through the census page by page to see if I can find them. Doing so is time consuming and so I've been referencing Google Maps to see if the set of records I'm looking at are in the right neighborhood. After flipping back and forth and forth and back between the map and the census, I realize something -- the neighborhood where my great-great grandparents lived in 1880 looks to be the same as where one of my first cousins recently moved with her family. I pull up my cousin's address and not only is it the same neighborhood, but it is only one block away! Amazing that 120 years after my ancestors lived and worked there that one of their descendants would wind up so near by!
Monday, February 27, 2012
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Eureka!
After a month and a half of poking around in the family
history I realize, I’ve got the bug. Each new discovery gives me a little thrill of excitement and opens up a
whole set of questions I want to find answers to. I had planned on spending one weekend a month checking out the
family history, but a bout of flu in late January zapped my energy so I
spent more time than I had expected digging around to see what I could
find. I followed a few trails to nowhere
and a few others that might be somewhere but there just isn’t enough solid
information to be sure yet. I really
wanted to figure out where the Murray clan was in 1910, but wasn’t getting much
of anywhere, so I turned my attention to the Colemans if only to get source
material for what I already knew.
I found my great grandfather Daniel Coleman in the
1900 census living on Folsom Street in San Francisco. At first glance at the record, it looked like he was living with
a family named Alexander, a fellow sailor. As I looked more closely at the page, however, I noticed the name
“Coleman” a few lines above the Alexander family, and I realize that there is
another family living at the same address. John Coleman, his wife Sadie, and children Gladys and John are also
living at the same address as Daniel Coleman. Daniel is listed as a lodger, but I suspect that he and the elder John
are brothers. Both are sailors and
their ages are about 4 years apart and I think Daniel’s father’s name was also
John, so it’s a good bet. I’ll have to
check out that record a little bit more, but there are some more possible
relatives.
The Coleman clan appears again in the 1910 and 1930 censuses
in San Francisco. Daniel has married
Elizabeth O’Leary by 1910 and they have 3 children – John, Eileen, &
Daniel. By 1930 my grandmother
Elizabeth and her younger sister Margaret are born. I knew the family lived in New Jersey for a while and Aunt
Margaret was born there, so I figured they’d be there in the 1920 census. My first few searches turned up frustratingly
empty until I try a search on Aunt Eileen – BINGO! I get a thrill of excitement as I look over the record and realize it's the right family. There is the Coleman family living in Jersey City, just across
the river from New York City. I suspect
whomever talked to the census taker was not a member of the family as lots of
the information is inaccurate (having all of the children being born in New
Jersey for example) which would explain why I was having problems finding them. Oldest brother John has died by this time
(something I already knew) so it’s a family of six.
Having found the Colemans in New Jersey, I turned my
attention back to the Murrays in San Francisco. I was determined to find out what happened to my great-great
grandmother Bridget Murray. I started
checking out other genealogy sites focusing on her death record. From the 1900 census, I knew she was born in
February 1841 in Ireland and the last confirmed record I could find for her was
in the San Francisco city directory in 1907 when she would have been 66, so I
looked for any death records between 1907 and 1920. I have learned quickly that birth dates were a guideline for the
Murray family (I have found records for my great-grandfather Marshall that
indicated he was born anywhere between 1873 and 1880) so when I found a
mortuary record for a Bridget Murray living on Tehama Street in 1915 that matched
up with a Bridget Murray I’d found in the city directory in 1915 that I hadn’t
been able to eliminate from my list I thought nothing that the birth year was
off by 20 years. The mortuary record
didn’t have enough information for me to confirm or exclude this Bridget from
my family tree, but it did indicate there was a death notice for her posted in
the San Francisco Chronicle.
The San Francisco Chronicle is only available on line back
to the mid 1990s, so obviously this was going to mean a trip to the library and
pulling out microfilm. Thank goodness
I’d learned this method of research way back in high school in the dark ages
before the internet! A trip to the San
Mateo Main Library was all that was needed to confirm whether or not this was
indeed my great-great grandmother. I
pulled the appropriate roll of film and scrolled to the date I’d found
on-line. Reading the death notices in
the 1915 Chronicle was not an easy task – the print is really small and
I could only zoom in so much. I had to
practically press my nose to the glass to read “…Bridget Murray beloved mother
of Eugene, Joseph, Thomas, Stephen, and Frank Murray…” Damn, wrong Bridget. Again. I printed out the page anyway just so I’d have a reference for the wrong
Bridget in case I ran into her again.
Meanwhile, in between searching for family members, I was
also searching for resources to find my family members. One of the ones I discovered was the Library
of Congress. They have a large
collection of old newspapers available and searchable on line. One of the papers is the now defunct San
Francisco Call. On a whim, I decided to
see how good the search function was, so I entered Bridget Murray and the years
1900 to 1920 to see what I might turn up. Imagine my joy when 23 different pages popped up! My joy faded a bit when the first three
records I found were for real estate transactions. All of the records I’d found for the Murrays indicated they were
renters and working class – they likely couldn’t afford to buy and sell
multiple properties. The fourth record
I found was a 1909 death notice for an Ella Agnes Nelson. Who? That can’t be the right family. But wait… “…beloved daughter of the late John and Bridget Murray, and
loving sister of John, Mollie, Marshall, and Joseph Murray.” The brothers’ names are right, the mother’s
name is right, but the two sisters don’t quite match up with the Nellie and
Mary I found in the 1900 census. I’ll
save that record to look at later and see what else has turned up. Going on a hunch from Ella’s death notice, I
scanned the other results of my search and noticed another record that looked
like the birth/marriage/death notice section and was from 1907. I opened that record up and JACKPOT! This Bridget Murray lived at the last
address I had that I was sure was hers and her children were listed as “John,
Mollie, Marshall E., and Joseph Murray and Mrs. Edward Nelson.” That not only meant I had the right family,
it meant I had a LOT more information.
According to the death notice, Bridget’s husband was named
John; she was born in County Sligo Ireland, and she was buried in Holy Cross
Cemetery! I had suspected she was
buried at Holy Cross since it’s the main Catholic cemetery near San Francisco
and pretty much all the rest of my relatives have been buried there over the
last 100 or so years, but it was fantastic to have confirmation of this. The death notice also asked that papers in
Chelsea, Massachusetts be copied, so it looks like I have another lead to track
down.
Of course, Bridget’s death record also meant that the death
record I found for Ella Agnes Nelson was also the right family, which would
make her Nellie. She and her husband
Edward were living in Santa Rosa, California, so I’ll have to dig around and see
what I find for her there – if anything at all. I’ll also have to figure out her age – not a surprising issue I
know – as in the 1900 census she’s listed as having been born in 1878 which
would make her 31 in 1909, but the death notice looks to have her as 23 or 25 (again the print is small and difficult to read.)
Finding Bridget and Nellie gave me quite a thrill and I did
a little happy dance in my living room. Oh yes, I’m definitely hooked on this maze of mysteries. And still more new leads and trails to
follow. Who is this Edward Nelson? Did he and Nellie have any children? What happened to my great-great grandfather
John? And now that Mary is Mollie, will
I be able to find her as well? I also
realize I need to get in touch with my father’s cousin who is supposed to be
working on the Coleman family tree to see if my theory about the John Coleman I
found living with my great grandfather is correct. Many paths through the maze, and what fun
they are to follow!
Saturday, February 4, 2012
The First Month of Digging
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!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)