Murphy Family Connections

Dear Niall

Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out!

Have you searched www.irishgenealogy.ie for any record of the family? The site is free to use.

Roman Catholic records for the Parish of Brosna begin in 1866 to 1875 for baptisms and 1866 to 1900 for marriages. The issue with the Griffith?s Valuation, as you know I?m sure, is that it only lists the head of household, so it would be very difficult to ascertain who is who and link or connect them. The link below will give you an idea as to the spread of the Murphy name I Ireland in the 19^th Century:

http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/surname/index.cfm?Surname=Murphy&fuseaction=Go.

Have you considered looking at ancestry.com family trees or message boards to see if anyone else is or has been doing this research?  This avenue might be particularly useful in relation to the nuns and priests connection 

Let us know if irishgenealogy.ie turns up anything. 

Best wishes

Clare Doyle

Genealogy Support  

Hi, Niall --

My Murphys are from Brosna as well...I'm not totally sure which townland, but from what I can gather, at least some of my great-grandfather Daniel Murphy's (son of Daniel Murphy and Mary O'Connor (or I've also seen Conner) siblings were listed as residing or being born in Knockafreeghaun.  He himself was born in 1889, and all family lore states was that his father Daniel was a farmhand on the O'Connor's dairy farm and that he and Mary ended up eloping to get married in London.  I don't know if our Murphys are at all connected, but someone I believe to be a distant cousin on the Murphy side told me that there was some connection to Murphys in Knockaclarig, just over the border with Cork, and that Murphys that may have been cousins to my great-grandfather have their names on some war memorial in Charleville in Cork as well.

You mentioned not being able to find Richard Murphy's grave in Brosna...is this through a record search, or have you actually been to the burial ground there?  Over the summer I traveled to Ireland for the first time and stopped briefly in Brosna.  I looked through the small cemetery there for any Murphys or O'Connors and took pictures of all the gravestones I could find with those names.  I did not recognize anyone there, but then my research on the Murphy and O'Connor side of my family hit a brick wall early on, as only my great-grandfather Daniel and his sister Elizabeth ended up here in Chicago.  They had numerous other siblings...possibly there were fourteen or more children in all born to Daniel Murphy and Mary O'Connor, but the descendants of Elizabeth tell me that they were told those other siblings all emigrated to England or Australia and did not keep in contact with Elizabeth.  

I took so many photos in Ireland that I have yet to look at them all, but when I look through the ones in Brosna, I will see if any of the headstones I captured have the name Richard Murphy on them.

~Kimberly Murphy Wilbanks

Hi, Niall --

My Murphys are from Brosna as well...I'm not totally sure which townland, but from what I can gather, at least some of my great-grandfather Daniel Murphy's (son of Daniel Murphy and Mary O'Connor (or I've also seen Conner) siblings were listed as residing or being born in Knockafreeghaun.  He himself was born in 1889, and all family lore states was that his father Daniel was a farmhand on the O'Connor's dairy farm and that he and Mary ended up eloping to get married in London.  I don't know if our Murphys are at all connected, but someone I believe to be a distant cousin on the Murphy side told me that there was some connection to Murphys in Knockaclarig, just over the border with Cork, and that Murphys that may have been cousins to my great-grandfather have their names on some war memorial in Charleville in Cork as well.

You mentioned not being able to find Richard Murphy's grave in Brosna...is this through a record search, or have you actually been to the burial ground there?  Over the summer I traveled to Ireland for the first time and stopped briefly in Brosna.  I looked through the small cemetery there for any Murphys or O'Connors and took pictures of all the gravestones I could find with those names.  I did not recognize anyone there, but then my research on the Murphy and O'Connor side of my family hit a brick wall early on, as only my great-grandfather Daniel and his sister Elizabeth ended up here in Chicago.  They had numerous other siblings...possibly there were fourteen or more children in all born to Daniel Murphy and Mary O'Connor, but the descendants of Elizabeth tell me that they were told those other siblings all emigrated to England or Australia and did not keep in contact with Elizabeth.  

I took so many photos in Ireland that I have yet to look at them all, but when I look through the ones in Brosna, I will see if any of the headstones I captured have the name Richard Murphy on them.

~Kimberly Murphy Wilbanks

Niall:

Please see a new comment from Margaret Flanagan

Roger McDonnell

http://www.irelandxo.com/ireland/kerry/brosna-kerry/message-board/reply…

Hi Niall, my name is Yvonne Murphy and I am also tracing my Brosna family. I think your great grandfather Richard and my great great grandmother Mary were siblings. Her siblings include John, Batt, Nora, Michael, Patrick, and Thomas. Mary's father was Michael Murphy and her uncle Maurice Murphy who owned the Crown Hotel in Castleisland. Have you gotten any further with your research?