This Week on My Family History Calendar

Murphy-Keough Family Calendar June 8 - June 14
Image made with Tagxedo

June 8

Frederick F. Walsh [N555] (1929-1997), my second cousin once removed, was born on this date in 1929. Frederick's parents were James Walsh [N553] and Lettice Philpott [N639]. At some point, Frederick married Dorothy Hollohan [N1028]. Dorothy's parents were James Hollohan [N4778] and Julia Snow [N4779]. Frederick and Dorothy made their home in Plate Cove East, Newfoundland. I am currently working my way through the research I gathered while on a trip to Newfoundland and hope to piece together the rest of the family connections and bring these families forward. In the meantime, if you recognize this couple and have additional information about the families, I would love to hear from you.

Andrew Gordon Keough [6] (1926-1972), my uncle, and Colleen June Wilcox [7] (1928-1982) were married on this date in 1946 in Seattle, Washington. Gordon's parents were Andrew Francis Keough [30] and Dora Josephine Murphy [31] (my grandparents). Connie's parents were Seley Alvin Wilcox [37] and Neva Delores Rood [38]. Gordon and Connie made their home in Washington and had eight children. Sadly, their first child was born premature and died just hours after his birth. 

June 14

John Murphy [468] (1863-1863), my great-granduncle, was born on this date in 1863 in New York City, New York. John's parents were Michael Daniel O'Murphy [354] and Honora Agnes Butler [355]. Michael and Honora were both originally from Ireland - they met and married in New York City, New York and John was their second child. He lived one day and must be buried somewhere in New York. Michael and Honora went on to have 13 more children and their 7th child was also named John (a rather common Irish tradition). In 1870 the family moved first to Missouri and later to Nebraska. I have always thought it must have been sad to have lost a child so soon and to have moved so far away from where he was buried. 

David Francis Murphy [476] (1880-1952), my great-granduncle, was born on this date in Rock Port, Atchison, Missouri. David's parents were Michael Daniel O'Murphy [354] and Honora Agnes Butler [355]. David was Michael and Honora's 11th child. The family (who started out in New York and then moved to Missouri) settled in Johnson County, Nebraska in 1882 when David was 2 years old. In 1906 in Tecumseh, Nebraska David married Mary Loretto Kelley [1640] (1882-1966). Mary's parents were William Arthur Kelley [1630] and Julia Agnes Kelly [1631]. David and Mary made their home in Johnson County, Nebraska where they farmed and raised stock. They were life-long members of St. Andrew's Catholic Church in Tecumseh, Nebraska. David and Mary had two daughters.

Bernard Keough [178] (1866-unknown) , my great granduncle, and Bridget Heaney [185] (1878-unknown) were married on this date in 1901 at Open Hall (recorded at King's Cove), Bonavista Bay, Newfoundland. Their witnesses were John Kehoe and Elizabeth Heaney. Bernard's parents were James Keough [N58] and Margaret Dooley [N208]. I have not placed Bridget's parents yet (and I am guessing that the marriage witnesses were probably siblings of both Bernard and Bridget - so perhaps Elizabeth was a sister and Bernard's closest in age brother was John. An archivist told me that the spelling of surnames in Newfoundland had more to do with the parish priest or government clerks than with how the individual spelled their name). If this couple is in your extended family and/or the names Keough or Heaney with Plate Cove sound familiar, we need to get together and share information!

John Edward Murphy [860] (1917-1979), my first cousin once removed, was born on this date in 1917 in Everett, Washington. John's parents were James Joseph Murphy [205] and Catherine Maud Allen [858]. In 1939 John married Phyllis C. Toby [5887] (1916-1981) in Seattle, Washington. This first marriage must have ended in divorce because in 1956 John married Mary Jane Webber [6466] (1915-1974). At this point I don't know if he had children with either spouse and this is another one of those extended family members who I need to do a bit of research on when I am in the Pacific Northwest. My to-do list is getting quite long with this Family History Calendar theme!

Do any of these names or places sound familiar? Perhaps we share some extended family. If so I would love to hear from you, share information, and together we can grow our family tree. 

As far as numbers inside the brackets that you may have noticed [xxx] or [Nxxx], I have two separate Legacy database files and those numbers are record identification numbers for the individuals. The file without a letter is for my family and the file with the letter N is for all the Plate Cove East (and surrounding communities) Newfoundland families that I am working on piecing together for my one-place study. If you have families from these communities, please contact me so we can share information. Thanks. 

Motivation Monday ~ A Recap for March & April

February and March were crazy busy as far as my genealogy research went. After watching a Legacy-hosted webinar on newspaper research with Thomas Kemp of GenealogyBank, I decided to check it out. I had really good luck and was able to back my way into solving one of my Irish family's brickwalls. On a second research front, a terrific Irish records site came on-line and was mentioned in a blog post that directed me to church records for Counties Cork and Kerry. A bit of reverse sleuthing and comparisons with previously found but unproven census records and another of my Irish family's brickwalls finally came down. Both finds need some more work, but I am light years ahead of where I was two months ago. A nice bonus is that I now have additional family members (siblings of my direct ancestors who are “new to me”) to research and connect with. Both of those finds will be the subject of their own posts in the near future. All I can say in my own defense (for my February and March blogging slump) is that I was so busy researching and working through the connections that I just let my blogging slide.

Spring has sprung, Easter brought with it that reminder of new life and rebirth so ~ I am wiping the slate clean, jumping back into the monthly genealogy goal meme, and posting my March Accomplishments & April Goals (thanks to Stephanie at Corn & Cotton for keeping me and many others motivated).

Research

• The 1940 Census
• March ~ I prepared my 1940 Census To-Do Lists using the Legacy Census Tool. I broke down the to-do lists by county and state. Knowing that some of my family remained in the same towns and counties in Nebraska and Illinois I decided to focus on these areas as well as my grandparents (both located in Seattle, Washington and for whom I had their 1940 addresses).
• April ~ I found and downloaded the various census pages and as of today I have found 105 members of my extended family on the 1940 Census. I could not have done this without the following:
• I cleaned up my Legacy database and standardized all my census entries so I had 1930 census information for my extended family. This was an excellent exercise to prepare for the 1940 Census and also to review my earlier census entries and clean up my sources.
• Steve Morse, Joel Weintraub and the volunteers who worked on the OneStep 1940 Census program – thank you for such great programs and tutorials – I learned so much from using these programs and was able to drill down to the correct enumeration districts. You are all The Best!
• The various websites that uploaded the digital images of the 1940 Census – it was an embarrassment of riches ~ The National Archives, FamilySearch, Archives, MyHeritage, and Ancestry  ~ all worked hard to make so much available from day 1 ~ just brilliant! I used several of the sites and was able to noodle my way to finding the census pages.
• DearMyrtle ~ every evening Monday through Friday she hosted a webinar roundup that entertained, explained, shared stories, answered questions and kept the genealogy community involved in the hoopla that was the 1940 Census release. I was thrilled to listen to and watch the presentations by Joel Weintraub, the representatives from Archives, the National Archives, and Ancestry, the examples provided by Russ Worthington, the finds shared by attendees, and the discussion among the attendees on Twitter. There was a lot going on and it was clearly a labor of love ~ thanks DearMyrtle and RootsMagic for hosting the webinars.
• Kiley Family
• March ~ In response to my request and a small fee, I received my great great grandmother’s obituary from Obits of Nebraska. Ellen's obituary mentioned two sisters who attended her funeral as well as two nephews who officiated. I found the priests in the federal censuses and worked my way back to their families with Ancestry.com and GenalogyBank.com.  The nephews’ surname was Cannell and I found the Cannell family in Rockford and Burritt, Illinois.  From a combination of newspaper articles and obituaries, I determined that my great great grandmother Ellen Kiley came to America from Ireland with her widowed mother and (at least) two siblings, Jane Kiley (who married John Cannell, settled in Burritt, had seven sons, and later died and was buried in Rockford) and Catherine Kiley (who remained single, moved to, and later died and was buried in St. Louis). Of course the surname is spelled Kiley, Kiely, Kieley, and Keeley depending on the article or document!
• April ~ I need to follow up on the Kiley and Cannell families and transcribe and source all the material I found in March. I am in the process of adding it (with appropriate sources) to my Legacy database. I am also contacting current Cannells to hopefully find out more information about both the Kiley and Cannell families. 
• Murphy Family
• I need to follow up with extended family members in Nebraska and Washington both for family records and 1940 Census research. To any Murphys in Johnson County, Nebraska ~ let’s work on filling in some blanks. My email is over at the right so please get in touch. John ~ thanks for your comment I emailed you directly and would love to hear from you!

Organization

• March & April ~ I am continuing to organize my digital materials (photographs, census images, images saved in my Ancestry Shoebox, images saved from Genline of Sweden, images from DigitalArchives of Norway, and county and town research and images downloaded from Irish websites as well as all my Newfoundland research). Now that I have a system in place it is a process of working on this a bit each day ~ this is an ongoing project but I do see light at the end of the organization tunnel!

Blogging

• April ~ I need to get back on board with Amy Coffin’s 52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy. I need to finish my blog post about my grandfather Ernest William Lidman. I need to blog on a weekly basis ~ remember the Nike mantra ~ just do it!

Education

• March ~ There were lots of webinars to choose from in March and I attended the following:
• Introduction to Irish American Catholic Records with Michael Brophy on March 3 ~ This was a interesting presentation, with lots of insights and some tips to help me get farther with my Irish American research.
• 1940 Census with Thomas MacEntee on March 7 ~ A nice preparation webinar and he answered many questions to help us prepare for the census release.
• Using the Census Tool in Legacy with Geoff Rasmussen on March 9 ~ Thank you for this great tool and for the quick and responsive updates, you made my preparation so much easier!
• Using US Federal Records to Locate the Towns of Your Irish Ancestors with Donna Moughty on March 12 ~ An excellent presentation and I got lots of helpful tips to help me dig a little deeper with my brickwall Irish families.
• How to Use a Blog for a Research Log with Drew Smith on Mar 19 ~ This was a disappointing webinar from a usually reliable presenter. Drew discussed blogs in detail but it was clearly for beginners. There was no serious discussion of the research log aspect listed in the webinar title and which is why I (and others) attended the webinar. 
• Tips & Tricks for Webinar Presenters with Thomas MacEntee on Mar 21 ~ Thomas does a good job and this webinar was helpful to understanding how the process works (or rather should work) and is a real must watch for anyone planning on giving presentations.
• Digital Writing & Genealogy with Lisa Alzo on March 30 ~ Lisa always does a great job and this webinar was no exception. Some really helpful tips and plenty of great examples.
• April ~ It has all been about the 1940 Census Release but there are also some additional subjects out there for webinars.
• I attended 4 of 5 days of DearMyrtle’s roundup of all things Census (missed Thursday’s webinar but listened to it after the fact).  These were all-around great and very useful. We received some terrific best practices tips from all the major players.
• I plan to attend the following webinars during the remainder of April:
• Going Digital with Josh Taylor on April 10
• Genealogy on the Go – the Families App with Malcolm Green on April 11 (through Legacy)
• Using Legacy Family Tree to Support Family Groups/Associations with Geoff Rasmussen on April 14 (through Legacy)
• Reverse Genealogy: Finding the Living with Megan Smolenyak (through Legacy)

Giving Back

• I signed up as a 1940 Ambassador.
• March ~ I signed up to index the 1940 census when available, indexed the practice census sheet and watched the FamilySearch presentations so I would be ready to go when the census pages were uploaded and available.
• April ~ During the past week, I indexed census pages from Delaware, Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota and Oregon (I have indexed 1120 names and have a 98% accuracy rating ~ thanks to those enumerators who printed or had good penmanship). It is interesting and fun. More importantly, if we all volunteer we will have an index up and available for researchers and genealogists. It is a nice way to give back and thank those who indexed the previous censuses I have relied upon to find my families! I plan to index 3 batches each day (120 names) first thing in the morning. Are you signed up and indexing? If not, why not give it a try.

Onward and upward ~ I need to stay on track to reach my 2012 goals. If the first week is any indication, April is going to be a big and busy genealogy month!  What have you been up to? Any great finds? If you recognize any of the surnames and/or locations mentioned here, please contact me. Cheers!

Motivation Monday - Research Plans

We have all heard it before ~ in order to really focus on our research we should write up and use Research Plans.  In addition, we need to take that Research Plan and focus our research on that particular issue and not meander online or get distracted by ancillary research. 

A few points to consider:

• Think of a research question you want to answer;
• Write up the research question and your plan for answering the question;
• Consider the types of research (online and bricks & mortar) you need to conduct to answer the question;
• Set a time limit for conducting the research (use your genealogy database program to-dos or your genealogy calendar) and set benchmarks;
• A great blog entry I read on Clue Wagon was about spending 4 hours of time researching a particular person ~ check it out.
• After researching your question, write up your results and next steps in a Research Report.
• Give your Research Plan and Research Report to a genealogist friend to review (and offer to do the same for your friend); and
• Hopefully you will gain some insight into your research question (or solve it!) and you will continue to gain more experience by really focusing on your research.

I belong to one of the current ProGen Study Groups and January's assignment was to draft a Research Plan (assignments are turned in monthly and critiqued by other members of the Study Group as well as discussed during our monthly online chat).  Thanks to a member of my Study Group who was on the ball and turned in her assignment early (thank you Micki), I had an opportunity to read and use (as a template) her rather excellent Research Plan.

The research problem I chose was "to find the marriage date and place for my great great grandparents ~ Michael Daniel O'Murphy and Honora Agnes Butler."  According to information provided by their youngest granddaughter, the couple met and married in New York City in 1861.  Nice story, but I don't have any primary source information to support this "fact." 

Their published obituaries state that each was born in Ireland, each immigrated to the United States, they met and married in New York (although they list different wedding dates!) and the family bible entries list their first five children as born in New York City between 1861 and 1868.  Various later censuses show these children's birthplace as New York.  To-date I have not been able to find any immigration record or New York census record for either Michael or Honora (in the time period of 1840-1855). 

I have not spent much time on this family as we had birth, marriage and death dates and places from Murphy relatives for the more recent family (grandparents and great grandparents).  However, since I am now attempting to document the information I have received from family and do the necessary research to prove our family history and carry it back to Ireland, I need to learn more about Michael and Honora.  Writing up a Research Plan is one example of following through on my "work smarter not harder" genealogy goal for 2011.

These screenshots show the draft of my Research Plan, including "Known" Facts, Research Plan (lots of to-dos here!) and Summary of Findings (to be filled in once I conduct the research). 

I have done some research in Canadian, Norwegian and Swedish records, as well as records' research in Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon, and Washington.  However, I have not done any research in New York records so I will need to read up on what is available and how to get to it. A terrific resource to start with is the FamilySearch Wiki for New York.  Why not check out your own "State of interest?"

Sounds like a good online research project during February and perhaps a research trip in the Spring.  Alternatively, if we share any of the above family members and you can shine any light on Michael and Honora's early years ~ I would love to hear from you!