A Year of Searching

Last January, I decided to start researching my paternal ancestors – the Coleman and Murray branches of my family tree. When I started out, I had only the barest of information and a total of 71 names plugged into my family tree. Granted there were a few more people than those 71 that I knew existed. I knew most of my father’s first cousins were married and had children for starters. What I didn’t know was all their names or ages, and so they weren’t immediately added to the tree. I’m still gathering some of that information, but now I’ve got a list of 213 names and a much fuller looking tree.

There is still a lot of information I need to gather on my living relatives, but I know so much more now than I did just a year ago. And I’ve gone from knowing next to nothing about my ancestors, to having a picture of who they were and how they lived. I’ve learned my great grandfather Marshall Murray had five siblings and that both of his parents emigrated from Ireland – his mother from County Sligo and his father from County Galway. While I don’t know much more about my great great grandparents’ families, I do have paths to chase down to see if I can find out more. I do know my great great grandfather John Murray worked as an upholsterer upon arriving in San Francisco in about 1865 and that he met my great great grandmother Bridget McDonough while she was working as a laundress at the same laundry.

I’m still trying to learn more about my great grandfather’s siblings, and that is proving to be a challenge, but if I figured out what happened to one sister over the course of my first year of research, I am optimistic I can find out what happened to the other four siblings.

I’m fairly confident I’ve found my great grandmother Mary Mullane’s family, and while there are many puzzles to work out among the Mullanes I know that my grandfather had a few cousins who lived into adulthood and have children of their own.

On the Coleman/O’Leary side, I was able to find so much information from Ireland that I was stunned. When I began I expected that finding records from Ireland would be much more difficult, but I lucked out considerably by having my ancestors come from County Cork and the availability of some of the church records on line. Those records have given me leads not only on my great grandparents’ siblings, but their parents, aunts, uncles, and (possibly) grandparents (my great great great grandparents!) I’m still trying to verify some of that information, but the start looks promising.

While looking at my family history, I’ve also had to look more at world history. What was happening where my family was living while they were living? How did those events impact their lives? How have familiar places changed over the years since my ancestors walked the same streets I have? I’ve learned quite a bit. I think I’m finally getting the point of all those school assignments I had over the years!

Shortly after I began my search last January, I picked up a new CD by Bruce Springsteen. There were two songs on that CD that keep running through my head as I dig through the past to find out who my family was. The first is called “We Are Alive” and the chorus is:

We are alive
And though our bodies lie
Alone here in the dark
Our spirits rise
To carry the fire and light the spark
To stand shoulder to shoulder
And heart to heart 

The song is about many things, but mostly about people who struggled to make a better life for themselves and their families. It rings very true to me, especially when coupled with the second track, “American Land.” That song is about the hope and promise of America and, oddly enough, has a Celtic feel to it. It opens with:

What is this land America, so many travel there
I’m going now while I’m still young my darling meet me there
Wish me luck my lovely, I’ll send for you when I can
And we’ll make our home in the American Land.

 

Thinking about my ancestors who left the only home they’d known to travel thousands of miles away to find a better life knowing that they’d likely never see their home again is amazing to me. I can’t imagine what that would be like. I’ve long joked that my ancestors got it right on the first try – they settled in San Francisco and never left. Over 150 years later, and most of my family is still in the greater San Francisco Bay Area. Oh, I’m sure some as yet figured out second, third, and fourth cousins have long since left the area, but between my extended family on my maternal side and the extended family on my paternal family I don’t have to travel far to find family. The idea of moving half a world away never to return is something beyond my comprehension.

 

Learning more about those people and what they went through to make a better life for their family and, ultimately, me is something I am eager to learn. I am their legacy and what does that mean. People I’ve never known yet have informed who I am. Those spirits do rise and stand behind me as I move forward.

 

I can’t wait to see what the next year of searching brings!