John Murrell : Short Biography

John Murrell was born in the Roe River Valley of County Derry Ireland about 1770 and was married to Jane Alexander. His father, grandfather, and great Grandfather Samuel Morell left his mark in County Derry having been the owners of farms and mills in farming flax and milling Irish Linen. Samuel was leased the land from one named John Connolly in 1700 a few years after he immigrated from Scotland to Ireland in 1696. Samuel was born in 1670 and he married Katherine Connolly in 1700 and she was a cousin of the statesman. The Morell's practiced the Presbyterian religion throughout the generations to follow. Anyway flax farming and the milling of linen became a family business for many generations to follow as the family expanded and also relocated to various town lands in County Derry, like Moneydigg. The surname spelling changed from Morell to Murrell, Murrell and Murrell, and back to Morell again dependent on who they were and mainly because of the offspring migrating to various parishes and townlands as my great great great grandfather, John Murrell did after relocating to Moneydigg with Jane and the younger children.  It was confusing as it sounds because he was John Murrell in one location and John Morell in another. My great great grandfather was Samuel Morell who was born in 1824 and immigrated to Philadelphia, PA and married Hannah Tate Evans who was born in Dublin and her family was part of the church of Ireland. They had four sons, John, Samuel, William, and Henry, and four daughters, Hannah, Martha Jane, Katherine, etc.. Samuel and Hannah lived in West Philadelphia and had a family business that all the children participated in Cabinet Making Furniture making, and dress making all done from the family residence.  The men did the woodwork and the women made the fabrics and dresses. Samuel imported Irish linen from his family back in Ireland. Every son had a job to do, in pattern making, wood carving, milling, and the final products the women made the fabrics and dresses and sold them locally. The oldest son was my great grandfather John Morell born in 1954 and died in 1914 in Philadelphia. He married Margaret Francies Gibbons who was born an airish Catholic which did not settle well with John's mother Hannah and the two never got along. John Morell and Margaret Frances Gibbons had 3 Sons: John who died shortly after being born, Howard John Morell Sr, and Wilbert Joseph Morell Sr. The thing with the Murrell to Morell changes came up when a flax medal for excellence with John Murrell's name inscribed on the back showed up in Howard Morell's belongings that was passed down through the generations. John Morell and Margaret Francis owned a Candy and cigar store in West Philadelphia and the two sons worked their till they went their way to prosper working for large companies in the Philadelphia Metro area.  My grandfather, Wilbert Joseph Morell married Emily May Newman in 1930 who was a widow at the time with one daughter. They had two children: Wilbert Joseph Morell Jr and Joan Frances Morell. Wilbert Joseph Morell Jr married Marie Bernadette Hueber and they had 10 children: Wilbert, Joseph, Daniel, Robert, John, Rosemarie, Marie, Thomas, Kathleen, and Christine. I am Wilbert Joseph Morell III and I married Deborah Louis Jones and we have 3 adult children: Carina, Elysia, Wendelyn Louise, and Aaron Wilbert.  And we have 5 grandchildren not yet old enough to marry or have children.  The Morell and Murrell descendants from the Ow River Valley of Ireland have spread in America in the thousands and involved in skilled and professional occupations. My ancestors as well as my DNA shows I am of 99% Irish and Scots Irish heritage. One of my Morell Irish cousins, Michael Higgins, wrote an article published in the 2007 edition of the Roe Magazine about our ancestors in the Linen Industry in the Roe River Valley. I am a retired engineer at the age of 68 having served most of my working career for the US Navy.  I started life as a youngster in the wood and machine making skills before I went into the service and afterwards I completed a BSEE, MSEE, and MS in Engineering Management, worked in the private sector for. 11 years and as a civil servant for 33-1/2 years with the Department of the Navy. One thing about the Morell Heritage is our desire to work hard and be all that we can be. I been researching my Family tree since 1990 and started writing things down from then on. Ancestry.com, this website, FTDNA, and 23 and me opened up new doors for collecting facts. Remembering that just because something is officially and unofficially recorded does not make it true. My maternal great grandparents had various inconsistent years or ages recordered in US Census records going back from 1990 through 1930, gravestones marked births bein in 1858 for each and deaths in 1937 and 1938, naturalization papers with ages or birth dates being in 1865 and 1866, and death certificates that had specific dates provided by one of their children to the undertaker, so why is the tombstone off by 8 years for births? My mother's side of the family going back to the early 1900s are all buried at two cemeteries for all to see when another passes away and buried. If a company that made a gravestone for one of mine, it would be redone, not paid for until then, or they would be sued for upfront deposit and for mental anguish.