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I am totally surprised at where people are reading this - especially Russia, China, Indonesia!! How are they finding this!! And why?

I think I said before that my son Dan talked me into putting this Moriarty-Keohane family history "out there." I was reading an article today on  http://irishlowell.blogspot.com  about Jack Flood who had a "flood" of memories about growing up in the Acre section of Lowell. As happens to so many of us, when he died, many of those memories went with him. Every family historian can mourn this loss.

Lowell Irish also had an article about George Francis O'Dwyer - altho American born, he was obsessed with the Irish coming to Lowell. He made an index card for every Irish person he read about in the local newspapers and city documents. This was back in the late 1800s and early 1900s. As the article says, he made notes of every birth, marriage, death, and real estate transaction. He self published a book - The Irish Catholic Genesis of Lowell - and was sued by the publishers for non-payment. He was surprised that the book did not sell well.

Anyone who has attempted family history research and tried to share it will sympathize with Mr. O'Dwyer. I have collected dates and events for over 30 years - for both my family and my husband's family. I have written hundreds of letters, visited family members and family friends both here and in Ireland, photographed family homes, traipsed through family graveyards, bugged family members for information as well as tape recorded them, read local history and Irish history, spent hundreds of dollars - I dare not admit to spending thousands, and more recently, have spent endless hours on the computer. I have bored my family to death with my talk about our relatives. I have gone gung-ho with research at times and have also let it lapse for extended periods - especially when my kids were growing up. I have been amazed at the courage of relatives heading off to a new world and a new life. I have cried at the hardships relatives faced - deaths of children, deaths of young parents, financial burdens, other life changing events. I have learned about different places and world events. I have also learned about myself.

My ultimate goal would have been to write a book about my family's history - not just the cold hard facts, but my family in relation to what was happening in the local community and in the world at the time. Unfortunately, time is passing more and more quickly - and the research never seems to stop. I am finding more information even as I edit these posts! Plus I am not a creative person - I am more concrete - it will probably take me another lifetime to write the book - unless I can find a co-author or authors!

But, after reading those two  http://irishlowell.blogspot.com  articles, I want to thank Dan for making me write this blog. Those two stories made me stop - to think about this blog and what I am doing with it.  In the beginning, Dan helped design the blog, provided constructive criticism, pushed me forward, and encouraged me. I wasn't exactly kicking and screaming in resisting, but I was leery about the time it would take, would anyone read it, would anyone find it interesting. But at least this way, I have made the information available to anyone in my family who wants to take the time to read it - either now or in the future. It is not exactly the book I might have liked to write, but maybe it is the prelude to it. And unlike poor George Francis O'Dwyer who could not sell 200 books, my blog has received over 2500 hits! 

So, Dan, thanks for the push and the encouragement. I wouldn't and couldn't have done it without you! Your blog - http://mrmurphysays.blogspot.com - showed me what blogging is about.

And hopefully, I will get most of my information "out there" on this blog before I too croak!! And now on to the Learys!

Myles Moriarty - The Tragedy

Myles Moriarty and Ellen Leary had a garden where they raised potatoes and vegetables. They had a few chickens. Ma used to talk about her mother going into town to sell eggs and vegetables – she would take Tom the donkey and a cart. 

This is a picture with the old cabin in the upper left and Larry’s garden including potato drills/ridges in the lower right. Look at those rocks! Everywhere! Myles Moriarty would have planted a garden like this.  There would have been potatoes and perhaps onions and turnips. Across the dirt road is a hay field. The dirt road makes its way down to Brennans' old house near the water.

Imagine this old cabin with a thatched roof. The calves’ cabin is across the road from the old house – in the picture it almost looks like it is attached. Larry puts the calves in that cabin when he is separating them from their mothers. There will be a loud racket for a while from the calves crying for their mothers, and the cows crying for their calves.

This view probably hasn’t changed in hundreds of years except for the ESB poles for electricity.

Besides farming, Myles along with some of the local men also fished. They would set their nets in the Kenmare River. Then they would take their catch by donkey and cart to Cahirciveen to sell it.    

Myles and Ellen Leary began their family.

2 years after his parents were married, young James Moriarty was born on 4 February 1886 in Loughane. I wonder what that winter was like? Who was with 19 year old Ellen Leary when she gave birth? There was no phone to call a doctor. Was there a midwife or a woman experienced with delivering babies available? There were no lights except maybe candles. This was Ellen's first child - was it an easy labor and delivery? Was Myles there with her? Were there any complications? I don't like to think about it.

(Someone had told myself and my mother that Ellen Leary remained in Bohocogram for sometime after she was married because she was so young – 14 years old. But now we know that she was about 17 when she married.) 

James was baptized 10 February 1886 in St. Michael’s Church by Reverend J. O’Shea. Godparents were schoolmaster James Moriarty and Helen Moriarty. Helen Moriarty was probably Myles’ sister who emigrated soon after the baptism to America and died young – leaving 2 young children who were adopted by her brother Con. Helen, in the 1900 U.S. Census, listed 1885 as the date she immigrated – but as we have seen before, dates recalled from memory can be inaccurate. Do you remember that I found a listing for a 16 year old Ellen (Helen) Leary on the S.S. Baltic which docked in New York on 3 April 1886? This would have been 2 months after young Jim Moriarty was born in Loughane. 

Was there a celebration after the baptism? Had Ellen recovered? Normally mothers did not attend the Church for baptisms. Was there a party back in Loughane? I suppose Myles must have been thrilled to have a son.

Almost two years later, Mary (May) Moriarty was born 6 December 1887. The parish priest who married Myles Moriarty and Ellen Leary - Reverend R. McCarthy - baptized their daughter on 11 December in the parish church. Sponsors were Michael and John Leary – Ellen’s brothers. Her last name was spelt Moriority in book 3 page 39. 

Catherine/Kate Moriarty was born 24 October 1889 and baptized on 27 October by Reverend John Coumihan – sponsors were Michael O’Leary and Mary Moriarty according to book 3 page 53.  Michael O’Leary was probably Ellen’s brother, and Mary Moriarty may have been Myles’ sister who married the local neighbor and settled down Gleesk Pier road.

Ellen/Nellie Moriarty was born 12 June 1891 and was baptized 14 June by Reverend R. McCarthy according to book 3 page 64 - I guess he was still the parish priest. Sponsors were Florence O’Sullivan and Margaret Murphy. I don’t know who these sponsors are, but one of Myles’ aunts, Margaret Moriarty, had an address "c/o Maurice Murphy" in Newport – so perhaps the Murphys might have been relatives or at least close friends. 

I wonder if Myles was hoping that more sons would be coming along. Sons would help with the fishing and farming. But Ellen was young and had quite a few childbearing years left. Large families were the norm - there were no contraceptives in those days although nursing mothers tended not to become pregnant until they stopped nursing.

Ellen must have been busy with 4 small children, cooking, cleaning - tending the garden and chickens, helping in the bog and hayfields, while Myles was fishing or farming. During this time Myles would also help his neighbors at their bogs or in their hayfields. The neighbor's wife - and Ellen Leary when the neighbors were helping Myles - would prepare meals for the men and perhaps take them tea in the hayfield or bog. 

I want to think that, altho life may have been hard for this young Moriarty family, there were happy times as well. I wonder if they enjoyed storytelling, singing, or dancing?  Remember that there was no electricity or plumbing. Neighbors would visit each other in the evening - talking about local news if someone had been into town, catching up on neighbors who had emigrated to England or America if a letter had arrived, tracing family relations, singing, telling stories, maybe playing cards.  

But there were also the worries about whether the weather would hold for the crops and turf, would the potatoes last till the new crop came in, would there be enough food for the children, would there be enough turf to last the year, and most importantly, would there be enough money to pay the rent. 

The 1880s were also the time of the Land Wars and the boycotting of landlords, their agents, and any tenant who took the holding of a tenant who was evicted. There was violence on both sides - even in Kerry. The Irish National Land League and its president Charles Stewart Parnell were trying to obtain fair rents for tenants and the eventual purchase of their land. The League encouraged tenants not to pay unfair rents - the League would decide on a fair rent and encourage tenants to offer this to the landlord. If the landlord refused, the tenant would give the rent to the Land League until the landlord, who would now be receiving no rent, agreed to accept it.

One day in October 1893 a storm was brewing. There were probably dark clouds, maybe the wind was blowing, Kenmare Bay might have been churning. Old Paddy Dennehy of Ardmore, with tears in his eyes, told me that Myles Moriarty and the other fishermen wanted to rescue their nets, which they had set down in the Kenmare River. Nets were expensive and if they lost those nets, it might be hard to replace them. If the nets were gone, so was their livelihood. Then how would their families survive? Neighbors warned them not to go out. But they persisted. Myles Moriarty, a Casey from Loughane and one or two of his sons (while another son hid at home under a bed – he did not want to go,) a Burns from Gleesk, and another lad (who was setting a garden at Schoolmaster Crowley's and was asked to go) headed out in the boat(s.) I don't know what kind of boats they had  - curraghs, hookers, seine boats - curraghs I suppose. 

Ellen Leary Moriarty’s sister, Julia Leary, was married to Patsy "Cran" Currane of Ardmore. They were Molly Crowley’s parents. Patsy Cran was supposed to go with Myles Moriarty and the other men to save the nets, but he was taking a catch of fish to Cahirciveen.

The people on shore could see the men in their boats ------suddenly a squall blew up - the next minute the men were lost from sight. When the storm subsided, there was no trace of the men or the boats. They all drowned. Paddy Dennehy from Ardmore said that the bodies were never found. Aunt Nellie Keohane heard that the bodies washed up on an island off shore and were buried in the old Coad Cemetery. Ellen Moriarty had only been married for nine and a half years – now at 24, she was a widow and the sole support of her four children.

Five or six months after Myles Moriarty drowned, Margaret Moriarty was born on 18 March 1894 to the widow Ellen (Leary) Moriarty and was baptized 20 March 1894 by Reverend John Mangan (later Bishop of Kerry) – sponsors were Michael O’Leary and Brigid Shea. This was recorded in book 3 page 81. These were Ellen Leary’s brother and sister. 

I wonder if Ellen knew she was pregnant at the time of the drowning? 

Apparently after Myles drowned, Ellen Leary’s family wanted her to leave the children with relatives in Sneem and go out to her sister and relatives in America and work – eventually she could bring out the children. How could she raise and support her young children and pay the rent on the farm? But Ellen refused – she did not want to break up her family. Remember that young Jim was 7, Mary was almost 6, Catherine was 4, Ellen was 2, and Margaret was not born until about 6 months after her father drowned. 

Eventually a match was made with John L. O’Sullivan – but more about that later. 

Myles Moriarty - My Great Grandfather

We have seen that Michael Moriarty of Coad married Mary Sweeney of Coad on 27 November 1850 and settled in Loughane  - this was after Griffith’s Valuation in the early 1850s and at the tail end of the Great Hunger. They had at least 7 children and perhaps more.  Mary married locally.  James taught school in Annascaul. Three of the children - Margaret, Cornelius, and Helen - emigrated to Newport, Rhode Island. We know nothing about Michael. I think Myles was the oldest son, and he remained on the farm.

The following is part of the short family history I wrote about 1981-1982. I was working nights at St. John of God Hospital in Brighton. The daytime secretary typed this up for me. No such thing as a computer in those days. I have incorporated that history into this.  Excuse the notes and marks I have made on this copy.

"Loughane is located about six miles outside of Sneem on the coast road to Waterville ...

"It was the custom to build rectangular cottages - in order to be 'lucky' a house must not be more than one room wide. A house would be built into the slope of the rising ground so that it would be difficult to widen. Each room was the full width of the house. Generally there were two doors in the house - opposite each other. The front door was the only one in regular use. A stranger could not leave by the back door, or he would take the luck of the house with him. The two opposite doors were a means of regulating drafts of smoke from the fireplace. In Kerry, 'some houses are the scenes of morning and evening milking of cows; each animal being driven in turn in at the front door and out the back.'

"The Moriarty house was a rectangular thatched cottage - the back of it faced the hill that led to the new/high road. There was a fireplace at the right end of the house. There was only one window on the front of the house - between the door and the wall with the fireplace. The house is now a barn and has no light, but it looks as if there was a back door or back window, and there was a window on the wall opposite the fireplace. The windows are boarded up now. Traditionally windows were placed at the side of the house away from the prevailing winds. (Glass was expensive, and at one time taxes were levied on the number of windows.) The thatched roof was higher than the present one. There were lofts on either side of the house with a ladder used to reach them. The children slept in the lofts which were also used for storage. Beside the fireplace in the wall was a resting place for the hens. There was a dirt floor which Larry John L. covered with cement. He says that  even on the coldest, windiest days, this old house is warmer than the new house" (that his father, Mick John L, built when he got married.)

Above is the old cabin from the western side - you can see how it faces into the hill to the road above.

"The kitchen and the hearth were the core of the Irish home. The turf fire burning continuously day and night was the symbol of family continuity and hospitality to strangers. When the fire went out, the soul left the family of the house. The fire also kept the thatch dry and preserved the roof timbers. Mary Sweeney Moriarty's last task of the day was to smoor the fire; that is, she buried a live turf in the ashes to retain a spark which she could fan in the morning. This custom was fortified by the belief that the fairies would be displeased if there were no fire for them through the night. The fireplace was a shrine to which ancestral spirits returned, a link with the living past.

"All the cooking was done over the fireplace. A moveable hook hung down over the fire; this allowed pots hung over the fire to be pulled out so that the food could be stirred or the pots removed. Mary Moriarty also did all her baking in the fireplace."

This postcard shows the hearth with what looks like griddle cakes baking on the open fire. I remember visiting Molly Curran Crowley, my grandmother's first cousin, in Beal. Her house had the old fashioned fireplace - a lot wider than this one - with the hook for the pots. She used to have the kettle boiling over the fire - always ready for a cuppa. 

I remember visiting some older folks with Larry John L back in the 1980s. They would tell me to go out the same door that I had entered so I would not take away their "luck". I also remember Mickey Paul and Johnny Murphy giving back a bit of money for "luck" to the seller when they bought a cow or sheep and vice versa.

Uncle Patrick Murphy told me about a family in Bohocogram that kept their cows in the house with them - that would have been back in the 1930s. Back in the 1800s this was more common. A pig or a cow was a valuable commodity especially when rent to the landlord had to be paid. A dunghill was sometimes located beside the cottage. The land was rocky; farmers were clearing rocks to build fields to grow potatoes or grain. The dung was fertilizer to spread over the fields. Tenants had to guard their possessions - whether animals or dung.

I haven't been able to find a birth or baptismal record for Myles Moriarty. I wrote to Reverend John McKenna, parish priest, about Myles baptismal record, but he had no luck finding it. 

"The Presbytery, 

Sneem, 

Co. Kerry, 

4th June 1980.

Dear Mrs. Manning,

Thank you very much for your interesting letter and your enquiries about Sneem and your relatives here.

I'm glad you liked the little booklet on Sneem. It was written actually by a man named Theo Stoakley, who is the husband of our local medical doctor, Mrs. Ruth Stoakley. He asked me and Dean Gray-Stack (the Protestant minister) to write a little introduction to the booklet. Mr. Stoakley is preparing a larger edition of it but that will not appear for some time yet. Over the years Mr. Stoakley has done great research into the history of Sneem -- perhaps if you write to him he may be able to give you some of the old information you need on Sneem in the 1800s.
Our parish records for the nineteenth century are not complete. They start with a few entries in 1835 and 1837. There are several gaps between then and 1857. I went through the entries from 1857 to 1863 and regret to say that I did not find the entry of Myles Moriarty. Perhaps he was baptised in one of the neighboring parishes or simply that it was not entered by the person responsible at the time.
I wish to thank you for your kind offering and I ask you to excuse  me for the delay in responding. I was in hospital having surgery when your letter arrived. I have returned to the parish since last weekend and so had no opportunity to go through the records or reply to you until now.
With every good wish for your welfare,
Sincerely your,
John McKenna"

Father McKenna had no luck with Myles’ baptismal record, but I did receive the marriage certificate from Dublin.

"The Presbytery,                                                                        Sneem,                                                                                              Co. Kerry,                                                                                        28 June 1981.

Dear Mrs. Manning,                                                                           I am delighted to hear that you procured the marriage certificate of Myles Moriarty. Since receiving your letter I have looked for the marriage in the parish register here and sure enough there it was under the date you mentioned. I enclose a certificate of the marriage.                                                                                           It is much more difficult to find his birth or baptismal entry, as the records way back in the last century are very incomplete. I have a few entries for 1834 and 1835. Then there is a gap until 1847-48. Then another gap until 1857 and from that onwards they are complete.
The registers up to 1882 are difficult to read as they were written without any particular order. The ones from 1882 onwards are quite easy to follow as a new design of register was introduced in that year and it makes the research work much easier.
All the registers of the parishes of Ireland are in microfilm in the National Library in Dublin. To study them a person needs the permission of the parish priest of the parish in question. You have my permission to study the Sneem records there. You are also very welcome to study the registers which I have here in the parish when you come to Ireland.
Looking forward to meeting you when you come in July,

Very sincerely yours,

John McKenna"

Father Jack McKenna was a lovely man. He was a big supporter of the GAA - Gaelic Athletic Association.  These faded letters are typewritten on airmail paper - it weighs less than regular paper so that the postage would be less. Father McKenna left me alone in the Presbytery one afternoon in the early 1980s with the parish records. But I knew so little about the family history that I had no idea who or what to look for! And he was correct – the records are difficult to read. But let’s see what we know in 2013.

According to the civil certificate, Myles Moriarty, son of Michael Moriarty and Mary/Gubby Sweeney, was 26 when he married Ellen Leary (14) from nearby Bohocogram on 26 February 1884 in St. Michael’s Church in Sneem. James Leary and Michael Leary (Ellen’s brothers) were listed as witnesses. 

When I wrote up the short history of the Moriartys, I only made copies of some of the records I had obtained. Unknowingly, I gave away all the originals by mistake – including the civil marriage certificate for Myles and Ellen as well as the marriage certificate from Fr. McKenna. Fortunately, I had included the information in the history so I had the information but not the records. Below is a copy of the marriage certificate that I later requested from Fr. Michael Murphy who succeeded Fr. McKenna as parish priest and who led Sneem - and later  Kenmare - on to win the Tidy Town Competition.

Notice the Church record above from Father Murphy lists Thomas O’Sullivan and Frida O’Donoghue as witnesses – I don’t know who they would be, but this is can't be right. The civil marriage certificate listed Ellen's brothers - James and Michael Leary - as witnesses. 

Later, on www.irishgenealogy.ie, I found the entry for this wedding from the Sneem Parish Register in book 3 page 2 entry 12:

On 26 February 1884 Miles Moriorty of Loughanes (note the spellings made by the transcriber) married Helen Leary of Bohocogram. His parents are Miles Moriorty and Debora Sweeney; her parents are Henry Leary and Mary Leary.             The priest is Reverend R. McCarthy. The witnesses are Cornelius Moriarty and Geofrey Donoghue – but this does not match what Fr. Murphy sent or what was on the civil certificate!

It is interesting that Myles’ father is also listed as Miles (and not Michael) and his mother is Debora Sweeney. Moriarty is misspelled.  I have been told that Deborah, Gobinet, Gubby, Abbie, and Mary were all interchangeable names.

And I wonder who registered the marriage? Odd that there are three different sets of witnesses - but at least we know some of them.

From the information on Con Moriarty, do you remember that we think he immigrated to New York in 1880? He was first listed in the Newport Directory of 1883 – that could have been published in 1884 - did he emigrate after the wedding? Or would this Cornelius be another Moriarty? Would Con have returned home for the wedding? Would it be by proxy? So many questions!

I have seen Geofrey Donoghue’s name as witness on many marriage and birth certificates – I think he might have been a parish clerk in Sneem.

So Myles marries Ellen Leary from nearby Bohocogram, and they settle into Loughane. According to schoolmaster James Moriarty’s diary, his mother Mary Sweeney died in 1881; his father Michael Moriarty died in 1884. Myles sent a telegram to his brother James, the schoolmaster in Inch, to tell him about the deaths of their parents.  Would he send telegrams to the family in Newport or would he write to them? I wonder how expensive it was to send a telegram?

Information from the Valuation Office in Dublin shows the house and land in Glenlough in Myles Moriarty’s name in 1886 – Daniel O.B. (O’Brien) Corkery was the landlord. The local Sneem landlords, the Blands, had sold off some of their estate which originally extended to Castlecove – this is why Corkery is now the landlord for Glenlough.

Myles and Ellen (Leary) Moriarty live in the old cabin in Loughane where Larry now keeps the cows. Larry said that Myles was born in a house down the road going toward Brennans. Did Myles build our old cabin when he married? He married in 1884, and his father died sometime in 1884. So could his father and some brothers and sisters have been living in the original house when Myles built the cabin? Margaret emigrated in 1877; Con emigrated in 1880 – dates approximate. We know James Moriarty was teaching at that time because Myles sent him a telegram when their father Michael Moriarty died. I found that marriage for a Mary Moriarty in 1880 – that leaves Michael about whom I have no information. So we don’t know if anyone other than old Michael Moriarty and his daughter Ellen – who emigrated in 1885 - were in the older house. Perhaps Ellen was caring for the old pair and when they died, she emigrated too - especially if Myles had married.

The land in Loughane was very rocky and there were large boulders just outside the door of this “newer” cabin in the picture above. These were removed sometime since 1997. It must have been hard work to provide for a family and pay rent from this kind of land!

Helen Moriarty Murray

Do you remember that we have found Michael Moriarty marrying Gobnet Sweeney back in Cahirdaniel in 1850? 

Later in Loughane, their daughter Mary Moriarty married a neighbor, and her daughter married Patrick Breen's uncle Mike Breen. 

Michael and Gobnet's son James Moriarty went to Trinity College then married and taught school in Annascaul on the Dingle Peninsula.

I know nothing about their son Michael Moriarty.

Daughter Margaret Moriarty emigrated to Newport and married a neighbor from home - Michael Dwyer who worked on the Old Colony Line. Margaret had a boarding house on Thames Street.

Con Moriarty also left Loughane for Newport - Margaret probably paid for his ticket. Con worked in a Grocery and Liquor Shop for many years, married, and bought a boarding house that his wife Elizabeth ran. Con adopted his younger sister's children when Helen died young.

But who was this Helen Moriarty? Again, just like the others - except for the Schoolmaster - my family knew nothing about them until I got in touch with the Schoolmaster's family. They gave me some basic information to run with - in particular that Con adopted the two children.

When I eventually saw Con’s niece, Helen M. Murray, living with him in 1910,  I knew I had the correct family - they belonged to us! 

I tried looking for Helen M. Murray in the 1900 U.S. Census for Rhode Island on www.ancestry.com. I was excited to find a Murray family in Providence, Ward 1, Rhode Island. Helen M. is 2 years old and was born in November 1897. Her birthplace is Rhode Island. Her father is 28 year old Joseph Murray from Ireland – his father was from Ireland and his mother was from England.  Joseph immigrated in 1890 and is an alien – he does not appear to have filed citizenship papers. He is working as a gardener. Young Helen’s mother is 30 year old Ellen Murray. Ellen was born in November 1869 and emigrated from Ireland in 1885. She has been pregnant once and that child is alive. Joseph and Helen both can read, write, and speak English. They are renting a house at 34 (?) Amory Street. The McElroys are also renting at # 34 – so it must be a two family house. 

Could this be our family? The age for little Helen jives with the 1910 U.S. Census. But our Helen Moriarty was baptized 20 August 1868 – this census lists her birth date as November 1869. We will see again and again that dates are not always accurate – we also have to look at other information to learn if we have found one of our ancestors. We know from Reverend Moriarty’s letters that Helen Moriarty from Loughane married Joseph Murray. We know from the 1910 census that their daughter was Helen M, and her age in this census jives with the 1910 census. Although Reverend Moriarty thought Joseph was older than young Helen, the 1910 census showed us that Helen is the oldest. So putting all these pieces together, I believe we have found our family. 

Based on the 1900 census record for Helen M Murray, I found the S.S. Baltic, which left Queenstown and docked in New York on 3 April 1886 with 16 year old Ellen Moriarty from Sneem on board. The dates are a tad off - Ellen emigrated in 1885 according to the census - but we have seen that several times already. Ellen was traveling with a couple of other young people from Sneem – Pat Downing and a Fitzgerald. This could be our Helen Moriarty!

She is on the 17th line - below the Houlihan family and Pat Downing.

The S.S. Baltic was built in 1871 for the White Star Line by Harland and Wolfe in Belfast. This ship building company was owned by Thomas Ismay. The ship could hold 166 first class or saloon passengers and 1000 steerage passengers. Both Harland and Wolfe and Thomas Ismay will sound familiar to anyone interested in the Titanic.  Later in 1888 it was the first White Star command for Edward J. Smith who went on to command the Titanic.

According to http://www.oceanliners.us/white_star_cunard_po/baltic_white_star.html:

"The Baltic was lost at sea in 1898 after striking a submerged wreck in mid-atlantic. All souls aboard were saved when by Providence the American Line steamer SS St. Louis happened upon the foundering vessel in stormy seas during the middle of the night. In a divine act of grace the storm clouds dissipated and allowed a full moon to shine upon the scene during rescue operations."

To complicate things a little, I did find an Ellen Moriarty - 22 years old - working as a dishwasher in Providence in 1885. Who is she? Is this our Ellen? Maybe we will never know.

On www.familysearch.org, I found 27 year old Ellen Moriarty’s marriage to 24 year old Joseph John Murray on 26 January 1897 in Newport, Rhode Island. Joseph was born in 1873 – his parents were Michael Murray and Ellen Rhodes.  Ellen was born in 1870 – and here we go! – her parents were Michael Moriarty and Abbie Sweeney. 

LDS batch #109532-2, system origin: Rhode Island EASy, Film #2188896. 

I’ll have to try to get a copy of the marriage certificate – both civil and religious.

So then I tried looking up their daughter, Helen M. Murray, in the Rhode Island birth records – I found Helen Maria Murray – she was born 16 November 1897 in Providence - her parents were Joseph Murray and Helen Murray.

LDS batch #105514-7, system origin: Rhode Island-EASy, Source#1822783, reference #192. 

I’m going to try to get a copy of her birth certificate from the Rhode Island Archives. 

I could find nothing about Joseph C. Murray, Jr. until he and Helen were adopted by Uncle Con Moriarty. We’ll have to keep on looking. 

From the 1900 census, I looked for Joseph J. Murray in Rhode Island Street Directories - there was nothing before 1894. But I found an entry for Newport in 1895 – Joseph Murray, laborer, boarding at Howard House on Merton Road. I’m not sure if this is our Joseph Murray.

I did look up Howard House at 16 Merton Road. George W. Howard has the house there, and he is a gardener. I wonder if Joseph was working with him as well as boarding with him?

I had no luck trying to find a Rhode Island Census for 1895 for Joseph Murray. And I didn’t find Joseph Murray in either Newport or Providence in 1896, but I think I found him in Providence in 1897 – working as a gardener with a house at 34 Amy Street. (So that means it was Amy Street in the 1900 census that we already saw and not Amory.) I wonder if George Howard taught him a trade, and Joseph went out on his own. The same listing is in the directories for 1898 through 1902. I wonder why he moved to Providence?  

So he was in Providence for about 8 years - from at least 1895 through 1902. There is nothing for 1903 through 1910 in Providence – unless Joseph changed occupation and address. So what happened to him? Here is the 1901 listing.

I'm thinking back to the 1902 Newport Directory that reported that  Michael Dwyer, engineer, had removed to Providence - remember that he is Margaret Moriarty's husband. I wonder if something happened to Joseph, and then Margaret and Michael went to Providence to help Helen's family. 

But wait a minute, I found a listing in 1904 and 1905 for Joseph Murray working as a gardener and living at 26 Bath Road in Newport - this is now Memorial Boulevard.  Below is 1905. But look a little closer - this is Joseph R. Murray - I wonder if he belongs to us?

The 1905 Rhode Island Census has a listing for this Joseph Murray - family #130 with 7 in the family. It looks like he is a lodger at  28 Bath Road in Newport's Ward 4. He was born January 16, 1866 in Ireland - he is 39. He is married. He has lived in the United States for 12 years - all of those in Rhode Island. He has lived in Newport for at least the past 12 months.

Page 2 shows that his parents were born in Ireland. Joseph is naturalized and is a registered voter. He can read and write English. But wait a minute! This says he is a carpenter! The directories listed him as a gardener. So what does this mean? He has not been out of work during this census year. He is a Roman Catholic. I wonder who filled this out? It says a family of 7 - I thought that might be our 4 and the landlord's 3 - but that is a guess.

The same census has a listing for 4 year old Joseph Murray in Family #130 at 28 Bath road in Newport. He is also a lodger. He was born on September (?) 17, 1900 in Newport. He has resided the last 12 months in Newport.

Young Joseph's father and mother were born in Ireland. He is Roman Catholic.

There was also a listing for an Ellen Murray - family #130 - 7 in family - at 28 Bath Road in Newport's Ward 4. Ellen was born on February 18, 1869. She is the mother of two children - both are living. She was born in Ireland. She can read and write English.

The second page gives her date of immigration as 1896 - she has been in the Untied States for 9 years and in Rhode Island for those 9 years. She has been in Newport for at least the last 12 months. Her parents were born in Ireland.  She has no occupation. She is not the widow of anyone who served in the Civil or Spanish Wars; she receives no pension. She is Roman Catholic.

And to conclude this family in the 1905 Newport census, I found a listing for 7 year old Nellen Murray - could that be Helen? Maybe they called her Nelleen - little Nell. Family #130 is at 28 Bath Road. There are 7 in this family - she is a lodger like the others. She was born Nov. 12, 1898 in Newport.

Nellen Murray has lived in Newport the last 12 months. Her parents were born in Ireland. She is Roman Catholic.

On www.ancestry.com, I looked up 28 Bath Road in Newport in both the directories and the census. I found 3 other people listed: 

William H. Rankin is a conductor for the Street Railway and has a house at 28 Bath road. In the census, he is listed as head of the family # 129 with 2 in the family. He is 22 and was born in Massachusetts.

John Cappuccelli makes and repairs boots and shoes at 28 Bath Road, but I couldn't find him in the1905 census.

Mattie Edwards is the widow of Benjamin Edwards and has a house at 28 Bath Road in the directory, but in the 1905 Rhode Island census she is living elsewhere. She is a 37 year old mother of 3 - she is "colored" - and works as a cook. She and her parents were born in Virginia.

Edward Farrell, a baker, has a house at 28 1/2 Bath Road.

I want to think the Murrays above are our family but .... what about that 7 persons in family # 130?

I found a listing on www.familysearch.org for Joseph Murray who died in Providence, Rhode Island on 15 December 1905. He was 30 years old - born 1875. His father was Michael and his mother was Margaret. What happened to him I wonder? But this doesn't seem to be our Joseph - his mother was listed on the wedding certificate as Ellen Rhodes - not Margaret. Also I just found another listing for this death that gives Margaret as his wife's name. So two obvious strikes - plus he seems a little young.

Indexing Project (Batch) Number: 109377-1, System Origin: Rhode Island-EASY, GS Film Number: 1906750, Reference ID:    p 228.

I just (17 August 2013) found, on www.familysearch.org, a death listing for 36 year old Ellen Murray. She died 18 November 1906 in Providence. Her birthdate is November 1870. She is listed as married to Joseph Murray. Her parents were Michael Moriarty and Deborah Moriarty. What could have happened to her? 

Indexing Project (Batch) Number: I09336-0, System Origin: Rhode Island-EASy, GS Film number: 1906751, Reference ID: 

p 231.

I just found out (August 20, 2013) how to order a death certificate from the Rhode Island Archives and mailed a request for Con Moriarty's and his sister Ellen's death certificates. Hopefully in a couple of weeks there may be a little more information. I'm still researching as I am posting these blogs! It never ends!

So now we have learned something about Ellen Moriarty, but we also have more questions. I haven't found any more information about Ellen's children - Helen Murray Nichols and Joseph Murray.

We know that Helen and Joseph Murray were living with Uncle Con Moriarty in the 1910 U.S. Census - and it says he had adopted them. I wonder how long that process would take?

They remained at the Cleveland House until about 1932 - Helen had worked for a short while as a stenographer while Joseph had joined the Navy and later worked as a machinist. I presume Helen helped Ellen Moriarty with the boarding house. 

But I can find nothing more about them after 1932. This is for another day.