Rodgers Family

The following is the obituary of my maternal 3rd Great-grandmother, Grace Sharkey Rodgers.  Our family is seeking information on Grace and her husband Murtha Rodgers b. unknown date d.around 1837.  Murtha and Grace had nine children.  Grace and all of her children immigrated to the United States in 1857.  The Rodgers family settled in Johnstown, Cambria County, Pennsylvania, USA until their deaths.

Obituary from the Cambria Tribune, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, USA   Sept. 25, 1886.

Mrs. Grace Rodgers, relict of Murtha Rodgers, was born one hundred and four years ago, at Mullaughduff, parish of Kincaslaugh, County Donegal, Ireland, and her death occurred last evening at twenty minutes after 9 o'clock, in Minersville. Her maiden name was Sharkey. She was married when twenty-one years of age, in Ireland, to Mr. Rodgers. By him she had eleven children, of whom the following survive: Sarah, the eldest, now past seventy-five years of age, widow of Anthony O'Donnell, with whom Mrs. Rodgers made her home ; John, aged seventy three, of Prospect ; Francis, of Minersville ; Anthony, of Prospect; Catharine, widow of Dennis Boyle, of Minersville ; Grace, widow of James Mooney, of Prospect ; Michael, of Cambria ; and Patrick, the youngest, of Millville. All of the children were born in Ireland, and there, in 1837, when the son Patrick was but nine months old, Mr. Rodgers died. In 1857 the subject of this notice landed in America, came directly to Johnstown, took up her residence in what is now known as Minersville, and there she made her home the remainder of her days. Four of her children - Frank, Anthony, Michael, and Catharine - had preceded her to this country. Patrick and Mrs. Mooney and Mrs. O'Donnell came over the ocean with her, and the other brother and sisters followed in about nine years. Mrs. Rodgers enjoyed good health nearly all her life. She came from sturdy stock, and was blessed with a constitution free from defects. Until within a few years she was able to work about the house with remarkable energy. "Two years ago," said her son Patrick, the Iron-street hotel keeper, this morning, "you could scarcely have distinguished which was the mother and which the daughter, seeing them side by side." The daughter referred to is Mrs. O'Donnell, with whom she made her home. Last February Mrs.Rodgers attended the funeral of a daughter. Last Fourth of July she walked from Minersville to her son Patrick's, a full half mile, returning in the evening on foot and experiencing but little fatigue on account of the exercise. Six hours before she died she arranged her hair unaided. Twenty minutes prior to the demise she was sitting in a chair. Her mental faculties were unimpaired. Her sight was clear ; she never wore spectacles and could distinguish the faces of persons with whom she was acquainted at as great a distance as any of her children. She was free from disease. Her death was the result simply of the wearing out or wasting away of the vital energies. At her death she did not weigh more than seventy five pounds. In middle life she was a large, robust woman. Deceased was a member of St. John's Catholic Church. A requiem mass will be celebrated for the repose of her soul on Monday morning at 9 o'clock. The remains will be interred in the old Catholic Cemetery, Conemaugh Borough, in accordance with her own request.