Michael MURRAY : Short Biography

Michael Murray's ancestors seem to have been from the townlands of Rahona East & Rahona West which are a kilometre or so west of Carrigaholt village in the Civil & Catholic Parishes of Moyarta.  They may have been exiled to near there from near Borrisokane, County Tipperary (North Riding) as part of the 1650s land clearances of "Innocent Papists" after the many Oliver Cromwell-inspired massacres had virtually eliminated Catholics from Clare.  Their old clan may have been the O'Carrolls, and a number of those inter-married Catholic families were forcefully translocated to near Moyarta, where they continued to inter-marry with their old clan-cousins to the present day( the old farm occupier now through marriage to a Murray is Patrick Liddane).  Evidence of this are the many entries in the 1852-1881 Carrigaholt & Kilballyowen Catholic Parish Marriage Registers between declared 2nd- & 3rd-cousins with surnames of Murray, Ginnane, Carroll, Hedderman, Hassett and a dozen more, perhaps also Moloney (but the McMahons were locals here before the 1650s, in fact for well over 600 years?).   To know their cousin-relationships as far back as the early 1700s indicates that they had all been settled in Moyarta for at least that long?   

Michael MURRAY married HoNora Cunningham in 1813 when they were both about 23 years old, and they had 5 recorded surviving children before both died c.1840s-1850s: 

1 = Michael MURRAY junior apparently never married. As the eldest son, by tradition he would have inherited the leased farm.  Probably he was born c.1814, if his parents had a planned marriage on the traditional pre-Lenten Shrovetide Tuesday.

2 = Patrick MURRAY married Katherine COOPER and their first infant son & daughter died un-named.  Their daughter Katherine I. MURRAY died, probably in New York(?) on Nov 6th 1929.    Katherine I. Murray's only adult sibling was Anastasia MURRAY who had pre-deceased her.  Therefore, to divide Katherine I.'s estate a legal list of her 7*** elderly surviving,  & 15 pre-deceased 'Murray 1st-cousins' was made-up in NY in 1929-1930.   ***One of these 7, Dennis Ginnane, died on March 7th 1930(probably still living near Danbury,CT & married to Louisa Sperk?) during this process.   Presumably Katherine I. died either unmarried or with no living husband or children, and Anastasia similar?    Patrick born c.1815 & married c.1840s? 

3 = Margaret MURRAY married another long-time Rahona East local Michael HASSETT and had 5 children who all died pre-1929: 3 of those 5 kids married close cousins: Timothy Hassett married Bridget CUNNINGHAM, Margaret Hassett married John MURRAY, Bridget Hassett married Michael Kane/Keane?, Johanna Hassett married James CUNNINGHAM, and Hanna Hassett did not marry(?) -- perhaps she died as an infant & was namesaked by Johanna?      Margaret born c.1817 and married c.1840?

4 = Mary MURRAY (b.c.1819) married another long-time Rahona East neighbour, Patrick GINNANE(b.c.1809),  in 1843 and they had 9 recorded children.   Uniquely, a remnant of their family info survives from the April 1st 1851 CENSUS (post-Famine), because one of their emigrant sons {my great-grandfather John(c.1851-1933) }, was a trifle naughty and when he & his wife Winifred Roche(c.1857-1940) from Monagea/Templeglantine, Co.Limerick returned to Ireland on holiday from New Zealand in April 1917-1918/1919, John applied on Sept 12th 1917 for the Irish Old-Age Pension for over-70 year olds and so asked for the April 1851 Census papers for his family in Rahona East, Moyarta to be searched to prove his age(Application C17 7013 1917).  Did John really not know his age? He used a variety of birth years, as many did in that era.  Because he was declined for the Pension as "not found" on that Census as being born yet, but 3 of his apparently 4 older siblings were{Norry was 4(Honora b.1846);  Michael was 3, b.c.1847;  & Denis was 1, b.c.1849-1850}. The parents' marriage was seen in that Census Search as having been in 1843.  The alleged eldest brother, Patrick, was also 'not recorded', -- either Pat had died in the Famine/cholera or he (& John?) was not in the family home that Census night?  I think Patrick was born c.1844, & John was born between that Census of April 1851 & Feb 1853 when the Catholic Baptism Register started, and John is not in that, although his (4?) younger siblings are. To get that Pension John would have had to be proven as born before September 1847, apart from his being only a wartime tourist there, and it was soon after the Easter 1916 Rising & executions !   John had also visited Rahona East in 1905, perhaps without his wife Winnie.     http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/genealogy/census_search_forms/maiden_gm.htm     

The 1930 NY Estate division document lists that group of 26 Murray 1st-cousins in only their approximate birth orders, and with dubious spelling, so there is doubt about some aspects, but Patrick Ginnane & Mary Murray's 9 children are there (with a few of my corrections, & **indicates alive in 1929) as :    Patrick(never married?);   **Honor Ginnane married Laurence Murray(her cousin?) and later lived in Rahway,NJ;    Michael married Hanna Scanlon( Johanna Scanlan?, a local surname);   **Dennis married Louisa Sperk(NY German) & later lived in Danbury,CT;    **John Ginnane(c.1851-2 to Oct 1933) married Winifred Roche in NZ in 1885;    Daniel Ginnane(June 11th 1854-April 12th 1874, never married);    Mary Ginnane(born April 21st 1856, never married?, emigrated to the Mid-West USA?;   **Edmond( a.k.a. Ned, b.1859-1941) married local Honor McMahon, inherited his father's leased Rahona East farm & had 10 children there;    **Bridget(born July 7th 1863) married Peter O'Rourke from Timahoe, Co.Kildare and later lived in Chicago,IL.   

5 = John MURRAY married Margaret COSTELLO (probably she was from near Kilbaha?);  they have 8 children listed: Patrick married Margaret Dillon;  Michael Murray never married;  John Murray junior married Mary McMahon;     as Lawrence / Laurence Murray married ? ;       Martin Murray married Mary Crotty;  **Cornelius Murray married Bridget Rowan & lived in Ireland in 1929; so did Conor marry one of the local Kilcredaun Rowans?;  Daniel Murray never married;  **Bridget Murray married James H. Toner & was alive in Chicago,IL in 1929.   Bridget would have met that Mr Toner in the USA? 

The GPS coordinates of this ancestral MURRAY farm are 52.601730, -9.724196 as best as I can make out.  This is on the southside of the Rahona Lodge Camping & Caravan Park on a corner of West Street.   [ That original Lodge was built before the 1840s(?) by 'Long Bob' Keane, or "Bob Fada Keane" where the Irish language diacritic for a long-vowel is also known as a 'fada'. Presumably that Robert Keane senior was tall?  He was from the west side of Ennis at Beechpark / Beech Park.   One of his sons, Robert junior(?), was an educated Plymouth Brethren who lived at Rahona Lodge in the pre-Famine 1840s when he translated from the Greek a Protestant version of the Bible into Munster dialect.  Robert junior died respected at the family house in Dublin.   His brothers Marcus Keane senior & Henry Keane were amongst the most detested of the local landlord-agent class.  Marcus built Dundahlin mansion on the hill/cliff southwest of Kilbaha boat harbour c.1849.  Marcus' coffin { & that of his erysipelas-stricken late 'female house-servant' } was bodysnatched from a temporary crypt at the Kilmaley church ruin. His Dundahlen house was burnt during 'The Troubles' c.1921(?), and the BeechPark hayricks were being burnt in the 1880s-1890s after he had died.  One of Marcus Keane & Louise Westby's sons died at Batavia, Dutch East Indies(present day Djakarta, Indonesia). ]   

In case anyone would like to contact me in relation to this extended family group, my email is MURRAY@GINNANE.CO.NZ 

I can email back transcriptions of the Catholic Carrigaholt Marriages(Jan1852-1881) Register(approx. 800 entries), & the matching Baptism(Feb1853-1881) Register with approx. 4,000 entries.  There is also a large amount of added local history notes. 

Until Feb 1878 the Kilballyowen Civil Parish was included with Moyarta Civil Parish in those Carrigaholt Catholic Registers.