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!