My 3rd great-grandfather, MALCOLM MURPHY, was born in South Carolina USA sometime between 1798 and 1800, according to the 1850 US Census. He married MARIA THERESA PILCHER in Warren County, Georgia USA in October 1822. They moved to Georgia (Schley County, formerly Lee and Sumter County, GA), where they had 9 children. MALCOLM and THERESA MURPHY then moved to Abbeville, Henry County, Alabama, between 1850 and 1855, where they remained until their deaths (MALCOLM in 1868 and THERESA in 1878).
MALCOLM and THERESA MURPHY's oldest son was named WILLIAM N. MURPHY, born 1823 in Georgia, died 1904 in Abbeville, Alabama. He married LYDIA DAVIDSON. According to a biographical sketch of William N Murphy in the "Memorial Record of Alabama", Vol. I, p. 1109-1110, published by Brant & Fuller (1893),
"WILLIAM N. MURPHY, planter of Henry county, is one of the most prominent citizens of the county. He was the fifth in a family of ten children born to Malcolm and Theresa (Pitcher) Murphy. The former was a native of South Carolina, whose ancestors were originally from the Emerald Isle, and who settled in South Carolina."
I am searching for the name of MALCOLM MURPHY's father or any link to his Irish heritage. I speculate that his father's name could have been William if he followed traditional Irish naming patterns as his first son is named William, but so far have been unable to find any documentary evidence of Malcolm's parentage. Any help would be appreciated.
Interestingly, a couple of generations later, one of my grandfather's brothers decided to spell his last name with an "e"--MURPHEY. Family folklore says that they did that to distinguish the Protestant Murphey's from the Catholic Murphy's. However, all of my genealogy research indicates that all of my ancestors were Protestant. Any comments on this would be interesting.
Monday 21st Jan 2013, 09:20PM
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Hi
Thank you for your message. Do you have any additional information pertaining to the early family members which may assist others in furthering your research? Do you know anything about their emigration?
The reality of finding documentation pertaining to births/baptisms/marriages/deaths in Ireland prior to 1800 ? particularly in rural areas ? is that they simply may not exist. Some registers for urban areas pre-dating 1800 may exist ? though often these can be fragmented- as there was an increased need in cities or larger towns to document the population. Please also note that the Church of Ireland was the official church of the country and therefore the bulk of information that does survive for earlier periods is often from these registers.
Church of Ireland parish registers for the period up to 1870-are public records. Registers are available for about one third of the parishes, however many were destroyed in the Public Records Office in Dublin in 1922. Most are still held by the local clergy, although some are in the National Archives of Ireland and others are in the Representative Church Body Library in Dublin. A list of all surviving registers is available in the National Archives. http://ireland.anglican.org/about/42 and http://www.nationalarchives.ie/. The Anglican Record Project is has created an index to their records: http://ireland.anglican.org/cmsfiles/pdf/AboutUs/library/AngRecord/bunclodyunionindex.pdf
Some sites that may assist you are:
British parliamentary papers on Ireland can be found at: http://eppi.dippam.ac.uk/documents/9824/eppi_pages/215093
The National Archives of Ireland http://www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy1/genealogy-records/introduction/
The National Library of Ireland http://www.nli.ie/en/family-history-introduction.aspx
The National Archives UK ? genealogy search: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/looking-for-person/
The Public Records Office of Northern Ireland http://www.proni.gov.uk/index/family_history.htm
Remember to post as much information as you can with regard to the people you are researching. The more information you post, the more likely it is that one of our volunteers will be able to advise or assist you. Also include information concerning which sources you may have already used so others may further your search.
Kind regards,
Genealogy Support
Thursday 7th Mar 2013, 12:14PM