Answering and Reviewing Some Questions, Part 1

I realized that over the four years since I started this blog I had posed a bunch of different questions that I may have not answered in a follow up post, so I decided to go back through the 40 or so posts I have written and see what I may have forgotten to update.  I'll also try to put in quick links to questions that were answered in case something was missed.  This will be a multi-part post and one that will appear from time to time as I move along in my research since I suspect there will be more instances of me plowing ahead and forgetting to update all the answers I find and/or forgetting to go back and look at some other questions.

The First Month of Digging brought up a lot of questions and I think I've answered most of them by now.  Some questions, like what happened to my Murray family relatives during and immediately following the 1906 earthquake and fire will probably remain a mystery.  That kind of information is usually found in family stories and I know of none.  Many of the other questions that I pondered in that first month have been answered though.

• What was Bridget's husband's name?  When did he die?
• Who is Joseph's wife? Why isn't she living with him in 1920?
• What happened to Mary and Nellie? Did they marry?
• Who were my great-grandmother's parents? Did she have any siblings?

The question of where in Ireland were my Murray great-great grandparents were from is answered in passing in several posts.  Both Bridget McDonough Murray and John Murray's death notices contained the useful information that they were born in counties Sligo and Galway respectively.  That decidedly narrows down where in Ireland I'll need to look for other points of reference, but with the challenge that is inherent in Irish records it will be difficult to find such common names with out being able to narrow them down to a parish or townland.

When did they come to California is another partially answered question.  Based on what I've been able to find in the San Francisco city directories and the 1900 census record has given me a rough estimate.  In the 1900 census, Bridget shows up as having arrived in the US in 1866.  I first find her with a certainty in the 1867 city directory working at the Occidental Laundry.  However I also found a Bridget McDonough working at the Russ House laundry in 1864 with several other McDonoughs.  I'm not 100% sure that's "my" Bridget, so I've put that record in my "maybe" file for now.  John Murray first shows up in the city directories in 1862 working at Easton's laundry.  So I have a reasonable timeline for both of them arriving in California.  But what about the question of when they arrived in the United States?  While it's possible they both emigrated from Ireland directly to California, it's more likely they arrived in the US on the east coast before moving across the country.  I haven't, to date, found any definitive records of the arrival of either Bridget or John.  The best lead I have is for Bridget as her death notice asked that papers in Chelsea, Massachusetts be notified.  That leads me to believe there was some kind of family in Massachusetts and that Bridget may have landed in Boston before moving west.  As for John -- that's definitely going to be a needle in haystack.  John Murray is a common enough name and the immigration records of the 1860s contain very little information that would allow me to identify one John Murray from another with any certainty.  The most interesting part of this question though gives rise to another question.  If John and Bridget arrived on the east coast sometime between 1860-1866, what was traveling across the entire continent in the middle of the US Civil War like?

The question of what happened to my great grandfather's older brother John Henry is another open question.  I only have spotty records for him.  After finding him living with the rest of the family in 1900-01, I have very little hard evidence on him.  He witnessed my great grandparents' wedding in 1918 and I know he's buried at Holy Cross Cemetery with his brother Joseph, so I know he died in 1930.  Those are the only hard records I have for him.  Again, with a name like John Murray, it's a bit tricky tracking him down.  I have a couple of possibilities in census records, but nothing definite.

I haven't quite found all of the Murrays in the 1910 census.  Bridget and Nellie (Ella) have died by 1910 and I'm pretty sure I've found Mollie living with her husband.  The brothers, however, are a bit more of a challenge.  I have a reasonable guess for Joseph, but nothing for either Marshall or John Henry, so that's one area I need to keep looking.

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The Mystery of Mary Mullane introduced me to my first real puzzler of the family -- that my great grandmother was married to someone named Denis Edward Hayes before she married my great grandfather Marshall.  Edward Hayes seems to have dropped out of the records after the 1910 census and I haven't a clue what happened to him.  Based on what I do know, I'm guessing Edward Hayes abandoned my great grandmother sometime around 1910.  My great grandparents weren't married until 1918, four years after my grandfather was born and the information my great grandmother provided for the marriage license wasn't entirely truthful.  Both of those facts lead me to believe Edward Hayes ran off.  I haven't put a bunch of effort in to tracking him down, but do have some potential leads to follow up.  The best of those is from the 1940 census which has an Edward Hayes who is the right age and divorced living at the Napa State Hospital, but with such a big gap between records I can't be certain I've got the right person.  And, like Joseph Murray's wife Agnes, has me wondering what put him in the state hospital in the first place! 

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More McDonoughs was my first lead on some possible relatives of my great-great grandmother Bridget McDonough Murray.  I found a Patrick McDonough living near the Murrays in the 1880 census and other searches turned up a Thomas and Betsey McDonough working with a Bridget McDonough at the Russ House in 1864.  I haven't spent much time on the McDonoughs recently, so I haven't found any connection between any of these people to my great-great grandmother.  I did spend some time on them when they first turned up then set it aside for a few months.  When I went back and took a look at the work I'd done, I discovered I'd made several mistakes and gotten different families mixed up so had to scrap a lot of what I did and go back to the beginning.  I think what I've gathered to date is accurate, but it is pretty limited and I've as yet to make any connections.

Uncovering a Family Scandal!

Okay, maybe it’s not too terribly scandalous in 2013, but for the early 1900s, it sure could be! A large part of my research over the past year has been trying to figure out the story of my great grandmother Mary Mullane. The only Mary Mullane living in San Francisco between 1871 (when she was born) and 1914 (when my grandfather was born) that I could find was married to a Dennis Edward Hayes in 1900 and as of the 1910 Census, Mary Mullane and Edward Hayes were still married. As late as April, 1911, when her brother John died, she is known as Mrs. Mary Hayes.
 
That made the time line for what little I knew about my great grandmother very odd. According to family lore, my grandfather, Edward Murray, had an older sister who died. Grandpa Murray was born in May 1914. If Mary Mullane was married to Edward Hayes in 1911, then how on earth could she be married to my great grandfather Marshall Murray and have had two children by May 1914? Turns out the answer is, they weren’t married.

Gasp! A family scandal!

In looking for family records, I have often searched online editions of historical newspapers. Mostly, it has been the San Francisco Call which is available free of charge through the Library of Congress for the years 1890-1913 under it’s various names over the years. I hadn’t been able to find a record of a marriage license being issued for Marshall Murray and Mary Mullane, which was very frustrating. Recently, through the subscription-site Newspapers.com, I was able to access issues of the San Francisco Chronicle from 1865-1923. Being able to do a search of newspapers is a great help when you don’t have a specific date for information. When I logged in to Newspapers.com, I called up the Chronicle and did a usual run of family names to see if I got any hits on people I’ve been researching. One of the first names I entered was Marshall Murray. When that didn’t turn up any hits, I tried Edward Murray which both my grandfather and great grandfather used. One of the records to turn up was the September 6, 1918 issue on the Birth/Marriage/Death notice page. I took a look at the page and saw under the list of names of people who had marriage certificates issued in Oakland “Edward Murray, 42 and Mary Hayes 38, both of San Francisco.” Well, the names are right, the ages are about right, but September, 1918 is nearly four and a half years after Grandpa Murray was born!

I sent off for a copy of the marriage certificate and waited to see if these were my great grandparents. If, as I suspected, they were, I would likely now have the names of Mary Mullane’s parents and know what the heck happened to Edward Hayes. Well, that’s not exactly what happened.

When the copy of the marriage certificate arrived, there were two pages loaded with information, but not all of it made sense. The groom is listed as Edward Murray, a Teamster, born in California, age 42, son of J. Murray and Bridget McDonough both born in Ireland, and that he is single and this is his first marriage. Other than the age being different by 2 years, that all matched what I knew about my great grandfather. The bride is listed as Mary Hayes, a domestic servant, born in California, age 38. Again that made sense, though in her case the age is off by 9 years. Since all the records I’ve found for the Murrays have had wildly variable ages, I set that point aside. It was the next bits of information about Mary Hayes that weren’t adding up. She also said she was single and that this was her first marriage. Huh? Then it goes on to list her parents as John Hayes and Mary Manning, both from Ireland. Double huh?

I know from the census records that Mary Mullane was married to Edward Hayes, so how could this be her first marriage? Her mother’s name of Mary Manning matched up with other items I’ve found, but who on earth is John Hayes? She is listed as Mary Mullane on my grandfather's birth certificate, so I suspect Mary was being somewhat disingenuous on the marriage license paperwork!

The other interesting bit on the marriage license is that Marshall and Mary were married by a justice of the peace and not in the Catholic Church as the family had always assumed. If she’d been married before, then not getting married in the Church, especially if she’d been divorced, makes sense.

Okay, so what happened?

One of the other items I’ve been tracing is who is the unnamed Murray buried with my great great grandmother Bridget. The records from Holy Cross say that person was buried on March 16, 1912. According to the California Death Index for 1905-1929 for fetal deaths, there is an unnamed Murray child who died on March 15, 1912 in San Francisco. I’ve yet to request a copy of that death certificate, but it would seem likely that is the unknown sister to my grandfather. I have also found a record for a Dennis E. Hayes in the 1940 Census who is about the right age as the Edward Hayes I found married to Mary Mullane in 1900 and 1910. In the 1940 Census, he is listed as divorced, and he is a patient at the Napa State Hospital and was there in 1935. I’ve yet to find any other record of him between 1910 and 1940.

That’s a lot of puzzle pieces, but fitting them together is the trick. The 1910 Census record was recorded on April 23, 1910. At that point Mary Mullane had been married to Dennis Edward Hayes for 10 years and Mary’s brother John was living with them. John died April 15, 1911, and Mary appears as Mrs. M. Hayes in his death notice. Assuming the unnamed child that was born and died in 1912 was the child of my great grandparents, does that mean Mary Mullane ran off with Marshall Murray? Did Edward Hayes abandon Mary? Assuming the Dennis Edward Hayes I found in 1940 is the same one that was married to Mary, when did they officially divorce? Under what circumstances could a woman file for divorce in 1911-1918? Did she file for divorce? Were they actually divorced? Why is Edward Hayes at the Napa State Hospital? When was he admitted to the hospital?

As always, the more answers I find, the more questions I uncover. I’m going to have to spend some time trying to work out this puzzle. I did get one bonus piece of information with this marriage license. The witness to Marshall and Mary’s wedding was John Henry Murray, Marshall’s older brother. It lists him as a resident of the city and county of San Francisco, so I at least have some record of him beyond his being mentioned in his sister Nellie’s death notice in 1909. Maybe I can pin him down soon.

More Mystifying Mary Mullane

Trying to find out about my great grandmother Mary Mullane has been quite a puzzle. To date, the only Mary Josephine Mullane I have found in San Francisco was married to a Dennis Edward Hayes in both the 1900 and 1910 censuses. My grandfather Edward Murray was born in 1914, which leaves a four-year gap between records and should have Mary Mullane and Marshall Murray married by 1913.

I sent off for her death record months ago, but haven’t received any response to the inquiry and may need to request it again as I’m hoping that will help me identify her parents and thus help clear up some of my confusion. I also sent off for the birth record for my grandfather, which provided some interesting, but again confusing, information.

For starters, my grandfather’s name is listed as John Marshall Edward Murray. Where on earth did “John” come from?! My best guess is that it was to honor my great great grandfather John Murray. From what I can tell, he never used John at any point in his life after that. And that’s not even the confusing part!

Towards the bottom of the birth certificate is a notation “Number of children born to this mother, including present birth.” That number is listed as two. Next to it is a notation “Number of children of this mother now living.” That number is listed as one. Well, ok, what’s that all about? There was a family story that my grandfather had an older sister who died as a child and that would match up with the birth certificate information. The question becomes, then, when was this sister born?

According to the 1900 and 1910 census records Mary Mullane Hayes had no children. If this Mary Mullane is the same Mary Mullane that married my great grandfather, then between April 1910 (when the census was taken) and May 1914 (when my grandfather was born) she would have had to have lost a husband, remarried, and had a daughter who subsequently died. That’s an awful lot in a fairly short time. It’s not impossible of course – a fairly reasonable scenario would be something like this:

  May 1910 – unknown daughter born to Mary & Edward Hayes
  1910 – unknown daughter dies in infancy
  1911 – Edward Hayes dies/abandons/divorces Mary
  1912 – Mary meets Marshall Murray
  1913 – Mary and Marshall are married
  May 1914 – Edward Murray is born

I have no evidence whatsoever to support that timeline, but it’s one that makes sense. Another scenario is that Edward Hayes dies before the unknown daughter and Mary marries Marshall then the daughter dies – a widow with a young child might be likely to marry sooner rather than later especially at that point in history.

Unfortunately, that’s all speculation. I’ve yet to find any record of Mary and Marshall’s marriage. I have no idea what happened to Edward Hayes. And I haven’t the faintest idea if the sister is a full sister or half-sister or when she was born or when she died. Heck, I don’t even know for certain if the other child was a girl!

I have been tracking down some other leads on the Mullanes, but I will save them for another post. I will say, this particular branch of the family tree is quite confounding!

Fuzzy Findings

I’ve been following several trails through the Murray family trying to figure out some unanswered questions.  Right now, the best I have are suppositions and guesses that need a bit more information to find out if I’m on the right track or if I’ve identified the wrong people.

For starters, one of the unanswered questions I have right now is who was Joseph’s wife?  He shows up in the 1920 census as married, but his wife isn’t living with him.  Who is she?  Where is she?  I’ve done some digging around in the city directories trying to find all of the Murray siblings between 1900 and 1920, and it’s rather hit or miss, especially when I’m trying to track John, Joseph and Mollie (Mary).  I’m never quite sure if the person I’ve found in the directory is the right one.

However, I did find a Joseph S. Murray working as a driver in 1911, which seems a good bet.  I can track him through to 1917, and from 1914-1917 he shows up with a wife named Agnes.  I’ve yet to find any record of their marriage, so I don’t know Agnes’ maiden name.  Despite not being certain this is the right Joseph, I did a search for Agnes Murray in the 1920 census to see if I could find her.  I found two that might fit.  The first Agnes Murray shows up living in San Francisco, but is single.  She is about 45 years old, from Scotland, and working as a cook.  Joseph Murray would have been about 40 years old in 1920, so it’s possible this is the right Agnes, but I don’t think it’s likely.  The second Agnes Murray shows up in Napa.  This Agnes is also about 45 years old, married, and was born in California.  She is also a patient at the Napa State Hospital.  I suspect this is the correct Agnes.  So, if this is the right Agnes and she was married to “my” Joseph S. Murray, what happened between 1917 and 1920 that would put her in the state mental hospital?  Historically, that would be the end of World War I and coincide with the flu epidemic of 1917-1918.  Could something have happened related to those events that would cause some kind of mental breakdown?  I’m not even certain what would cause someone to be hospitalized in the early 1900s when mental illness was no where nearly as well understood as it is today.  I’ve found what I believe is a death record for Agnes in Napa in about 1926, and need to do some more digging to see if I am on the right track.

Another avenue I am exploring is what happened to John Henry and Mollie?  I know that as of 1909, when Nellie died, they are both still living.  Mollie is probably unmarried in 1909, but that is about all I have figured out.  I have no idea where she was living or how she was supporting herself.  John Henry is an equal mystery.  Other than his name appearing in the death notices for Bridget and Nellie, I can’t find a definitive record of him after 1901.  Part of the problem is that by the 1910 census, the four surviving Murray siblings – John Henry, Mollie, Marshall, and Joseph – are all in their 30s and 40s and as best as I can tell unmarried.  Their parents are dead, so I’m looking for four single people living in a city of over 400,000 people.  That’s assuming they stayed living within the city borders.  Talk about a needle in a haystack!  I haven’t been able to find any of them for certain yet in the 1910 census, and the only thing I know for certain is that they are not living together.  The 1920 and 1930 censuses are even less help at least for John Henry and Mollie (and Joseph in 1930) since by then I don't even know if they are still living.

And then there are the McDonoughs.  I still have no idea if Thomas, Betsey, and/or Patrick McDonough are related to Bridget.  There are bits and pieces that point to Thomas and Betsey as possibly being family.  I believe I have found Thomas in Chelsea, Massachusetts in 1858.  Betsey also shows up in Chelsea in 1870, though her name is listed as Beesey.  I know Bridget must have had some family in Chelsea as her death notice in the San Francisco Call asked that Chelsea, MA papers be copied, but I can’t find any definite connection between Thomas, Betsey/Beesey, and Bridget.  It’s also not clear if Betsey is a sister or a sister-in-law of Thomas, but I’m fairly certain that those two, at least, are related.  If they are related to Bridget, I do have Thomas’s parents’ names, which will be a world of help.  Patrick was a bit easier to trace through the records, but there is nothing I’ve found about him that would definitely tie him to any of the others.

I’m still waiting for an answer to my request for my great grandmother Mary Mullane’s death certificate, which I’m hoping will tell me what her parents’ names were.  That might help me unravel some of the Mullane mysteries.  I still can’t figure out if the Mary Mullane I found is my great grandmother and if it is what the heck happened to Edward Hayes.

Finally, there are the things I doubt I’ll ever find out.  In the 1900 and 1910 censuses, women were asked how many children they had and how many survived.  In the 1900 census, Bridget Murray said she had six children, five of whom survived.  Based on the ages of her children, I suspect there was a child born between Mollie and Marshall.  That would have been in about 1872, and since that child does not appear in the 1880 census record he or she would have died before then.  A similar situation exists with Sadie Coleman, my great grandfather Daniel’s sister-in-law.  She had three children who did not survive, one born between 1895-1900, the other two between 1900-1910.  I keep my eyes peeled for any of these lost children while I comb through newspaper records looking for other people, but the odds of me being able to find them are not good.

The more I search, the more I realize there is so much more to learn and that some of the information may be lost to time.  I have many library hours ahead of me as some of the information I’m looking for just isn’t easily found online.  And I’ve barely started on the Coleman/O’Leary side, so it’s about time to start digging further into Irish records to see what I can turn up.

1940 Census

After I posted my last update, I realized I had neglected to share what I had found out in the 1940 census records. I had hoped to find out if my great grandmother Mary Mullane had been married before she married my great grandfather Marshall Murray. When I looked at information about the 1940 census I noted that one of the questions that was asked of women was whether or not they had been married before, however what I had missed was that it was a supplemental question asked only of a random sampling of respondents. Alas, Mary Mullane was not one of the random samples, so I still haven't confirmed whether or not she was married to Edward Hayes before she married my great grandfather.

Nevertheless, I was able to gather some interesting information from the census records. When the records were posted on line in the beginning of April, they were not searchable by name (that is an effort still in progress) so I needed to know where my ancestors lived in order to find them in the census. I had a couple of addresses for my Murray relatives, but not specifically from 1940. I had asked my father if his family was living at the house on Niagara in 1940, and he said that they were and gave me the house number. I had addresses for Marshall Murray up to 1932 and then a gap until 1948, so I hoped one of those two addresses would be where I would find him in 1940.

When the census records came on line, I called up an available map that showed the census tracts and opened Google Maps to help orient myself to the streets. None of the Murrays were showing up where I thought they might, but I also wasn't sure I was reading the maps correctly. To test that I was reading the maps correctly, I decided to take a look for my Dwyer relatives since I knew for certain they were living on Westwood Drive in 1940. I found the corresponding map and looked for the enumeration districts in tract O6. In fairly short order I turned up my grandparents and great grandparents living exactly where I expected them to be and conveniently on the same page (my grandparents living across the street from my great grandparents.) It was fun scrolling through this set of images and recognizing all the street names and knowing exactly where they were with out having to cross-reference Google Maps. (That's the downside of not having lived in San Francisco proper -- I am only familiar with certain sections off the top of my head.) It was even more fun showing the page to my mother who recognized the names of the neighbors, some of whom I'd heard many stories about over the years.

Ok, so I was clearly reading the maps correctly. Why wasn't I finding the Murray side of the family? I thought about it and realized that they probably weren't living on Niagara in April 1940. My father had always told me that his grandfather had bought the house for his parents and the plan was for him to move in with them at some point. Just his grandfather (my great grandfather.) That meant the house had to have been purchased after my great grandmother had died. She died in July 1940 -- the house on Niagara hadn't been purchased yet!

I turned back to the city directories and went back to the 1932 listing and proceeded to march forward in time to see if I could find the right address. I eventually found Marshall and Mary living on Natoma in 1939. Nana and Grandpa Murray were living on 29th Street. One of the things that had thrown me in my searches was that Marshall and my grandfather Edward weren't working in the occupations I had expected after 1932, so when I searched and got an Edward Murray working as a watchman and another working as a reporter, I set them aside as the wrong people. It was only when I looked year to year that I realized that the watchman was Marshall and the reporter was my grandfather Edward! That was quite a surprise, and when I mentioned it to my father he said "oh yeah, he worked for the newspaper for a while." Thanks for the heads up Dad! From what I can tell, Grandpa Murray became a teamster around the time he and Nana were married in 1934.

Now that I had found everyone (including the Colemans living on Bosworth) what information could I get? Most of it was things I already knew, but because of the Great Depression there were more questions about employment than had been asked in previous censuses. The items that leaped out at me the most were related to the cost of living -- what was being paid in rent (or the value of the house if owned) and what the person's annual income was.

It was fascinating to see what my ancestors earned in 1940. It ranged from nothing (my great grandfather Daniel Coleman, who was 80 by 1940) to $4,200 (my great grandfather Ignatius Dwyer who was the registrar of voters for San Francisco.) Most intriguing, however, was Marshall Murray. He was earning $1,000 per year as a watchman and paying $16 per month in rent. How on earth was he able to afford to buy a house for my grandparents if he was making that little? Dad's stories always said that his grandfather had bought the house outright for his parents and it cost $4,500. Where did Marshall come up with that much money? Right now, my best guess is that there was some kind of death benefit paid after my great grandmother died in July 1940. It's as good a guess as any I suppose.

So, while I didn't find the information I had hoped in the 1940 census, I did learn some new things about the family during that time frame. And I definitely need to look more into this whole "Edward Murray, reporter" business.

The Mystery of Mary Mullane

After hitting a couple of road blocks that required field trips during work days, I turned my attention to my grandfather Edward’s mother, Mary Mullane. I’d found a death record for her in 1940 and it gave her middle initial “J” and her mother’s maiden name as Manning. Armed with these bits of information, I sent off for her death certificate and then started looking elsewhere to see what I could find.

Having had success with the San Francisco city directories already, I started there to see if she might turn up. I found a Miss Mary J. Mullane living on Belcher Street in 1896 and 1897. There were quite a few other Mullanes at the same address, all men. My best guess is one is her father the rest are brothers, but which ones are which I can’t really tell. Having an address will make it easier for me to find her in the census records, so I head off to check out the 1900 census.

Huh. Well, this is weird. In 1900, Mary Mullane is still living at the address on Belcher, but now she’s Mary Hayes and she and her husband Edward Hayes are living with her brothers Joseph, Patrick, and Edward. Did I find a different person with the same name and about the same age or was my great-grandmother married twice? I decided to check the 1910 census, maybe Edward Hayes died? I find her again, though this time her husband is listed as Dennis E. Hayes and another brother, John, is living with them. Curious.

Maybe I’m wrong and I’ve found the wrong person. There aren’t a whole lot of Mullanes listed in the city directories though, and most of the ones that were listed were all in that house on Belcher in the late 1890s.

I decide to go looking for more information on Mary Mullane, and that means newspapers. First I checked the San Francisco Call on line and found a notice in the April 21, 1900 edition for marriage license issued to Denis E. Hayes and Mary J. Mullane on Belcher Street. I also stumble upon a death notice for a Mrs. Mary Mullane, who seems to be the mother of Mary J. Mullane. (Why, oh, why are there so many repeating names!) It lists her children as John, Mary, Joseph, Thomas, Phillip, and Patrick and mentions she is the niece of “J. Manning.” Seems to be the right family, but still…

Next stop, it’s off to the San Mateo library and the microfilm for the San Francisco Chronicle. Let’s see if her death notice provides any insight. There is no mention of Dennis Edward Hayes, which I didn’t expect, but there is a mention of two brothers, Phillip and Patrick. Those brothers show up in the death notice for Mrs. Mary Mullane and I can find them living at the same address on Belcher in the late 1890s, so the odds are I have found the right person.

So, if Mary Josephine Mullane was married to Dennis Edward Hayes as late as 1910, what happened? I haven’t been able to find a death notice for Mr. Hayes, but if I’ve found the right Mary Mullane she was married to Marshall Murray by 1914 when my grandfather Edward Murray was born.

I asked my father if he’d heard any stories of his grandmother having been married before, and he said he hadn’t. As I kept poking around I was aware that the 1940 census records were about to be released, so I decided to brush up on what information I could find there. I wasn’t really planning on mining much information from the 1940 census – I know a lot about the people that would likely turn up in it – but a bit of explanation caught my eye.

For all women who are or have been married:
·     Has this woman been married more than once? (Yes or No)
·     Age at first marriage.

Well, what do you know? So now I have a reason to look for the 1940 census. It won’t be as easily searchable right away, but I have the information I need and I should be able to find the right page to see if there is an answer to this question. My only fear is that the census enumerator didn't survey the Murray family before my great-grandmother Mary died in July 1940 and therefore the information got missed.

April 2, 2012, can’t wait!