Finding John Murray

When I first discovered my great-great grandmother Bridget Murray in the 1900 census, she was listed as a widow and living with her five children. Who was her husband? What happened to him? As I dug around in the records looking for Bridget, I found several possibilities for her husband. There was a James & Bridget Murray in the 1870 census, but that Bridget was a bit older than the one in 1900 and they had no children. There was a “Bridget Murray, widow (Thos.)” in the 1915 San Francisco City Directory, but is that the same Bridget I’d been tracking? The best option I found was a John and Bridget Murray in the 1870 census. The age for Bridget was about right and they had a son named John who was 1 year old, which would be about right for the John Henry I found in the 1900 census. Still, I needed to confirm which one of these candidates was the correct one.

When I found Bridget’s death notice in a 1907 edition of the San Francisco Call, I was able to eliminate two of my three candidates. According to the notice, she was the widow of John Murray. Excellent, that meant I could go back to the 1870 census record I’d found and try to determine if this was indeed the right John & Bridget Murray.

1870 Census Record for John & Bridget Murray
(ancestry.com)

When I looked at the 1870 census record, I jotted down all the information listed. John & Bridget and their son John Henry were living with another couple – John and Margaret Feechan. I could read that John Feechan was a shoemaker, but could not decipher the listed occupation for John Murray. I looked at the writing for the other records on the page and still couldn’t quite decipher the word. The best I could come up with was “Nephalstener” which made no sense whatsoever. Obviously there’s no such word as “nephalstener”, but maybe there’s some odd 19^th century occupation that I can’t quite figure out, maybe the “p” is an “f”, maybe it’s supposed to be two words? Well, that’s another item to figure out in the long list of things to figure out. While muddling over this, however, I did get further confirmation that I was on the right track when the death certificate I’d ordered for my great-grandfather Marshall arrived in the mail – his parents were listed as John Murray and Bridget McDonough.

Back to tracking down John in the census, I had discovered a second source for San Francisco City directories that included years not available at Ancestry.com, but the search function left much to be desired and meant a more manual search. I decided to start with the 1870 directory since that would hopefully match up with the census record. Unfortunately the 1870 census records didn’t include house addresses, so that meant logging all of the John Murrays in the directory and try to cross-reference them through the years. There were 17 John Murrays listed in the 1870 directory, but the 14^th entry was intriguing. This John Murray was living at the “corner of Leavenworth and Broadway” and was an upholsterer. Hmm, let’s look at that 1870 census again, could “nephalstener” actually be “upholsterer”? Now that I have a word to compare it to, it’s clear that it is upholsterer. To be extra sure that I’d found the right John Murray, I flipped back in the directory looking for John Feechan. I didn’t find a John Feechan, but I did find a John Feehan living at Leavenworth and Broadway. Well, it looks like I found the right one.

I followed John Murray through the years, but he disappears after 1891. In 1894 Bridget shows up as widow living on Tehama, which is where I found her in 1900. I haven’t located an 1893 directory yet and there are 5 different listings for “Bridget Murray, widow” in the 1892 directory but none are for addresses that I am certain are the right family. My best guess then is that John Murray died between 1891-1892.

Having found John Murray from the 1870s on, I decided to look backwards and see if I can figure out when he arrived in San Francisco. He first appears in 1867 working as mattress maker at the Occidental Laundry. Since I know he is married with a child by 1870, I wonder when he and Bridget met – was it in San Francisco or back in Ireland? Starting with the 1867 directory, I decide to look for Bridget under her maiden name, McDonough. Jackpot on the first try – Bridget McDonough is working as a laundress at the Occidental Laundry.

So now I’ve gotten more information and have time lines to search for other information. Each piece of the puzzle makes the picture clearer than it was before. Bridget McDonough and John Murray worked at the Occidental Laundry prior to September 1867 (the date the directory was published.) They were married with a one year old son by June of 1870 (when the census was taken), which makes it likely they were married in 1867 or 1868. There is one bit of curiosity though, neither John nor Bridget show up in the 1868 city directory, but John pops back up in the 1869-70 directory and appears consistently through 1891. Were they missed when the directory information was collected or were they living elsewhere that year? If they were living elsewhere, where were they and why?

 

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!

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 10^th 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!