SNGF - Ancestral Homes 150 Years Ago

It has definitely been awhile! Although I have posted on Google+ and been active in the Guild of One-Name Studies and the Legacy Virtual Users' Group, I am afraid I have let my blogging slide. Well it's time to get back in the saddle and why not start with some of Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun.

The mission that I accepted (and yes you are hearing the Mission Impossible theme music) was as follows:

1) Determine where your ancestral families were on 1 June 1863 - 150 years ago.
2) List them, their family members, their birth years, and their residence location (as close as possible). Do you have a photograph of their residence from about that time, and does the residence still exist?
3) Tell us all about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook Status or Google+ Stream post.

Here is mine for the Irish side of my family:

My second great-grandparents, James Keough (1824-unknown ) and Margaret Dooley (1832–1919), resided in  Plate Cove East, , Bonavista Bay, NEWFOUNDLAND.  I do not have a photograph of their residence, but I do know it no longer exists. I visited the community and have met extended family members and have many pictures of the community. The household included my great-grandfather Patrick Keough (1859–1924), who would have been 4 at the time, as well as 6 siblings. They had a total of 14 children between the years 1850 -1878.

My second great-grandparents, Dennis Driscoll (1824 - unknown) and Ellen Kenny (1832–unknown), resided in Plate Cove East, , Bonavista Bay, NEWFOUNDLAND. I do not have a photograph of their residence, but I do know it no longer exists. I visited the community and have met extended family members and have many pictures of the community. Their daughter, my great-grandmother Mary Driscoll (1864–1915) had not arrived on the scene yet.

My second great-grandparents, James Joseph Murphy (1819-882) and Ellen Kiley (1834–1913), resided in Vesta, Johnson, Nebraska, USA.  Each had emigrated from Ireland to the USA in the 1850s.

I have mapped the location of their town, but I do not have a photograph of their residence, and believe it no longer exists. In 1867 James and Ellen homesteaded and built their home and farm (I reviewed the original paperwork at NARA Washington, DC), and the farm remains in the family today. In 1863, the household included my great-grandfather Lawrence Edward Murphy (1862–1918) and his sister Katherine K. Murphy (1863–1946). Five additional siblings would follow.

My second great-grandparents, Michael Daniel O’Murphy (1836-1926) and Honora Agnes Butler (1842–1925), resided in New York City, New York, New York, USA.  Each had emigrated from Ireland to the USA in the 1850s. I have mapped the location of their neighborhood, but I do not have a photograph of their residence, and believe it no longer exists. In 1863, the household included my great-grandaunt Mary Murphy (1861–1893). Thirteen additional siblings would follow, including my great grandmother, Catherine Matilda Murphy (1864–1907).

Thanks Randy for getting me back to my blogs - oh, and check out my answers for the Swedish, Norwegian & Slovenian side of my family on Scandia Musings.