Happy 40th Anniversary to himself and me!

James Arnold Blaha and Mary Catherine Burns were married at St. Frances Cabrini Church in Minneapolis on August 21, 1971.

It has not been much of a Genealogical Summer...

There hasn't been much genealogical activity on my part this summer.  There was an occasional flurry of activity on Ancestry, but not much other research getting done.

Moses Murphy

On the DNA front, I upgraded the O'Connell DNA and there were more mismatches with Daniel O'Connell that makes us now unrelated.  Not sure how that works.  I'm going to have to talk to somebody who knows more about it. The other fun in the DNA word is that I upgraded the Burns DNA to Family Finder and there have been a few hits.  Family Finder looks at both sides-maternal and paternal.  So far, only one hit seems to go anywhere in terms knowing how we may be related.  A woman in Australia is a Murphy descendant from County Wexford and it is possible that her ancestor is a relative of Moses Murphy! Another woman, Patricia Lindkvist, is a 2nd-3rd cousin possibility. I emailed this woman, but no response.  Doing a little digging, there is a possible Patricia Lindkvist, who died last year, that is a possible distant relative. In fact this was interesting, because I traced her back to the Haydens.  In our family, there has always been the "we are related to" Monsignor Ambrose Hayden.  It is known that Hanorah Reardon married Michael Hayden. For a while, there was a working theory that Mary Riordan/Reardon, mother of Hanorah may have been a sister of  Ellen Sullivan Shea, who was the mother of Mary Shea, wife of Moses. Since this post was originally written, contact with Patricia's family has clarified that Mary Riordan's maiden name was Shea. (correction, 8 Nov 2014--also see this blog on 23 Feb 2012)  Anyway, Patricia shares a lot of DNA with Tom--more than I would expect from this distant of a relationship.  More avenues to follow!

Moses Murphy was born about 1831 in County Wexford according to his gravestone.  He was in New York State by approximately 1856 or '57 because it is presumed that he married Mary Shea about that time.  He does appear in the 1860 NY Federal Census in Easton Township, Washington County.  At that time, Mary his wife, Mary Ellen and Hannah (daughters) also appear.  Ellen "Shoo" as it was spelled on the census was living with them--Ellen Shea--Mary's mother.

By the 1865 Minnesota Census, the Moses Murphy family was living in Derrynane. Their children were Mary Ellen (Kilduff), Hannah (Burns), Elizabeth (Green), Catherine (Cullen), Bridget (Hickey), John & Thomas (never married),Agnes (O'Neill) and Cecelia (Weldon).

Moses died in 1887.

Moses also had 2 brothers who lived in Le Sueur County.  Michael Murphy married Mary Ellen Thornton. Their children were John, Thomas, Moses, James and Mary Ann.  Michael died fairly young in 1878 and his wife married Michael Lavery.  Only Thomas had a biological child that I can find.  James adopted the daughter of Christopher Shea after Christopher's wife died.

His other brother was Martin Murphy.  When he died, he was described as Moses Murphy's youngest brother.  Martin was born about 1845, so I'm sure there must have been more children in between besides Michael.  Martin married Mary McCourtney in 1870.  Mary died in 1875.  Martin died in 1889.