Dear Dave, Anne, William and Hannah
Every so often, I knock over a pile of papers on the spare bed and while restacking them, come across something which I meant to do something about. The latest such item is the genealogical notes I made in Wellington so here is an update so far.
Thomas Murphy - Kath's father?, born Killenaule, Co. Tipperary.
Killenaule is a village 11.5 miles by road east of Cashel at the junction of R691 and R689. And that is a coincidence as my paternal grandmother Peg Dunne was born near Newinn, about 4 miles south of Cashel, in 1877. Her birth was registered in a place called Rosegreen which lies between Newinn and Killenaule as a fairly drunk crow might fly. Possibly Thomas Murphy's birth was registered at the same place.
The other point is more confusing. I noted that Thomas McGee (born New Mills) married Rose Hagen (born Ireland) under the impression that these were our great grandparents (James's parents). However, I have three pieces of paper in my mother's hand, all of which say that James's father Thomas married Margaret Hislop/Hyslop. Now, have I lost a generation somewhere - ie were there two Thomases, father and son - or do we have to go to arbitration (ie find James McGee's birth certificate) to decide who's got the correct name? James was a calico printer's engraver (following in father's footsteps?) and born in New Mills but I had the impression that his father was born elsewhere and moved to New Mills.
Anyway, I'll try to put what I've got in the way of your direct ancestors on the back of this letter and see what you think. If you want to provide any corrections or can add anything, let me know sometime and I'll update my database. It's not much of a database. I bought Family Origins for Windows last year just to organise the various bits of information that I had picked up and now have 166 names in it though most are just the names of the siblings of various ancestors. One of these days I'll start trying to cross-check the contents and follow up some of the bits like finding the census information from last century for the address in Lanarkshire where my paternal great grandfather lived when a boy.
To turn to more mundane matters, everyone is well here, life is very quiet. It seems likely that Moira, Louise and small Paul will go out to join Paul in Kuwait in September for at least a few months. It's still not definite but they have started making the necessary arrangements.
Mary and Brian must be all right, I haven't heard otherwise. Gordon was going to look for work in Bournemouth then one day decided to go to Cambridge instead (the town not the university). Ten days ago he still hadn't found a job.
Nothing heard form Manchester recently so we assume all is reasonably well there. Did I mention that I suddenly realised that it is no longer Manchester - everyone has moved out to Commutersville.
Right, I've spun this out enough to reasonably fill the page so I'll shut up now and get printing in time for the morning post.
Hope youse are all well,