Patrick Ryan and Catherine McGrath were born in Ireland, Patrick about 1813[1] and Catherine about 1818[2]. They were married around 1834, possibly in New York where their eldest child, Ellen, was born.[3] About 1840, they moved from New York to Illinois where their third child, Mary Jane, was born in 1841.[4]
Children of Patrick Ryan and Catherine McGrath
Patrick likely died between 1845, when his youngest child, William, was conceived,[5] and 1860, when his wife Catherine is listed as a widow in the City Directory of St. Louis, Missouri.[6] A family story recounts that after Patrick died in Illinois, the family traveled in a wagon to St. Louis. The oldest daughter, Ellen, drove the team and Catherine held the youngest child, William. Supporting the stated timeframe for Patrick’s death and the family story, William H Ryan’s 1909 obituary states that he was two years old (about 1848), when the family moved to St. Louis.[7]
Ryan Monument, Calvary Cemetery, St. Louis, MO (Section 1, lot 280)
After their marriage in St. Louis, Missouri in 1877, Daniel and Mary Jane (Ryan) Hardie lived in Cincinnati, Ohio for a few years. Their first son, Daniel Eugene, was born in 1878 in Cincinnati.[1]
The family returned to St. Louis around 1879 and remained there until 1897, living initially on Papin Street and subsequently on Caroline Street then Bell Avenue. In addition to Daniel Eugene, the family unit in 1880 included Daniel Senior’s three daughters (Janet, Isabelle, and Elizabeth) from his second marriage as well as Mary Jane’s son (Eugene O’Neil) from her first marriage. [2]
Hardie Family Residences, St. Louis, 1879-1897
Daniel and Mary Jane’s first daughter, Frances Diamond Hardie, was born in St. Louis in 1881. She was baptized at St. Malachy Roman Catholic Church, 2900 Clark Street in the Mill Creek Valley neighborhood. Her godmother was her maternal aunt Ellen (Ryan) Diamond, who would later marry John W. Allen.[3]
In addition to her three half-sisters and her brother Daniel, Frances had a second brother, William Norval, born in 1883, and a sister, Marie Ellen, born in 1886.[4]
Half-siblings & Siblings of Frances Hardie
About 1889, Daniel Hardie became the proprietor of a pottery manufacturing operation, “St. Louis Art Pottery”, on 2135 Washington.[5] He is described in 1891 as a pottery dealer at 2135 Washington street who “lives comfortably with his family on Bell avenue, and all the members of his household are so uniformly healthy that he has said to his friends, laughingly, sometimes that the physicians of the city would never think of complimenting him by an honorary membership in their medical society”.[6]
Daniel Hardie was born in 1838 in Bo’ness, Linlithgowshire, Scotland. He was the fifth of seven children born to Robert Hardie and Janet Buchanan.
His parents were born and married in Bo’ness.[1] His paternal and maternal grandparents were married in Linlithgowshire: the former in Bo’ness and the latter in nearby Bathgate.
Daniel Hardie Family Tree
Between 1838 and 1870 Daniel Hardie lived in three locations in Scotland: (1) Bo’ness in Linlithgowshire, (2) Linktown in Kirkcaldy, Fife, and (3) Pollokshaws near Glasgow, Renfrew. All three locations are within easy driving range of Edinburgh and Glasgow. (See following map.)
Scottish Residences of Daniel Hardie
Daniel married twice in Scotland, in Linktown and in Pollokshaws, and he worked as a potter in both locations. He immigrated to the United States around 1870.
This article identifies events in Daniel’s life prior to his immigration and describes the potteries in the locations where he lived.
On Saturday-Sunday, July 2 -3, 2011, a reunion of the descendants of Hugh Murray and Mary Maloney was held in St. Louis, Missouri. On Saturday morning attendees journeyed to Potosi, which is about 70 miles southwest of St. Louis. Most, if not all, of Hugh and Mary’s nine children were born in Potosi.
St. James Parish
Hugh and Mary’s nine children were likely baptized at St. James Church. The present church, located at 201 N. Missouri St., dates from 1859. The Parish Cemetery is located nearby at 213 N. Missouri St.
St. James Catholic Church – Potosi, MO
Mary Murray and Bernard Flynn
Hugh’s sister, Mary (Murray) Flynn (1832-1899), and her husband Bernard Flynn (1828-1892) emigrated from County Down, Ireland in 1851. They settled in Potosi, where Bernard worked as a wagon-maker. They had eight children, 6 boys and 2 girls, born between 1854 and 1873.
Mary and Bernard Flynn, as well as some of their children, are buried in St. James’ Cemetery, just north of the parish church.
One of the many things I learned while visiting with newfound cousins in Ireland in September 2019 is that “our Murrays are the Preagh Murrays”. Preagh Hill can be seen from the old Murray farm.
Preagh Hill, Barnamaghery, N. Ireland
There are many Murrays in this part of Ireland. Indeed a usual page in the old Catholic Parish registers from the 1800’s for the immediate parish of Carrickmannon and Sainthood is replete with Murrays, often marrying one another.
Who Occupied the Farm?
The following video traces the Murray descendants who occupied and owned the farm from 1831 to 1954. The current owner recorded the land and buildings as they were in 1996. That footage is included at the end of the video.
Created by Kathleen Murray, 2021 [License: CC BY 2.0]
Murray Farm in Barnamaghery, Killinchy, Down, Ireland
Michael Murray (1799-1865) was a farmer in county Down, Ireland. He and his wife, Catherine (nee) Murray (1802-1882), had 10 children, five boys and five girls. In 1888 Hugh Murray, their seventh child, was a wagon maker and undertaker residing in Potosi, Washington County, Missouri, USA.[1]
One Son of Michael & Catherine Murray
Question: Who were Michael and Catherine Murray’s other nine children?
This question is challenging for two reasons. Firstly, civil registration of births began in Ireland in 1864, a few decades after the children were born. Secondly, the family was Catholic and parish sacramental registers that might identify the children’s baptisms were inconsistently kept and preserved in Ireland in the 1800s.
Adding to these challenges was the fact that only the Irish county of residence for Hugh and his parents was known at the outset, namely county Down. Identifying the townland and civil parish for Michael Murray’s farm in County Down was an essential key to unlock Irish records.
In mid-19th century Ireland, there were 70 civil parishes and 40 Catholic parishes within county Down.[2] Civil parishes in Ireland are administrative units that in the 1800s generally corresponded to the parishes of the established Church, namely the (Anglican) Church of Ireland. Civil parishes are comprised of townlands and many records of historical and genealogical interest are organized by townland and/or civil parish.
Catholic parishes in Ireland are organized by diocese and often cross civil parish boundaries. In some cases, the Catholic parish registers identify an individual’s townland in baptismal and marriage entries. Hugh Murray’s 1838 baptism was recorded in the baptismal register of the parish of Carrickmannon and Saintfield. The register also recorded BM (Barnamaghery) as the family’s residence.[3] Barnamaghery townland is in the civil parish of Killinchy in county Down.
These two location facts, townland and civil parish, enabled research access to Irish valuation, land, probate, census, and civil registration records for the family. Additionally, detailed obituaries in Irish newspapers proved vital to identifying three of the female children.
Ultimately, including Hugh Murray, nine of the ten children of Michael Murray and Catherine Murray were discovered. Additionally, 47 of their grandchildren were identified.
I was influenced to write this post about my mother at this time by the upcoming college graduation of my great-niece, which will be a virtual commencement due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although it has been 83 years since my mother graduated from college, it struck me that both she and my niece chose teaching careers, graduated with NY State teacher certification, experienced a pandemic, and had their graduation experiences altered by grave societal events. While my niece has her future career to experience, I wanted to understand my mother’s experience in regard to career and employment.
As I pieced together relevant events from her life, it became clear that social context greatly impacted her success. Ultimately, her various efforts to gain employment were thwarted by three factors: the Great Depression, World War II, and the dominance of traditional sex roles. This story describes her efforts and the end results.
Virginia Pauline Brown was born on July 22, 1917 in Ogdensburg, NY.[1] The influenza pandemic raged in her young life from January 1918 through December 1920. Just a month shy of her twelfth birthday, on June 23, 1929, she received her elementary diploma from Holy Family School in Watertown, NY.[2] A few months later, in August of 1929, the US stock market crashed, ushering in the Great Depression.
Ella Moloney is Ellen Moloney (1849-1920). She is my great-grandaunt, the younger sister of my great grandmother Mary Moloney (1844-1912), the wife of Hugh Murray.
To the best of my knowledge, her parents were Michael Moloney (c. 1812-1870+), a shoemaker born in Ireland, and Ann Geraghty or Anne Garrity (c. 1816-1895), also born in Ireland. They had 8 children: Ann (b. 1838 in NJ), Andrew (b. 1842 in NY), Mary (b. 1844 in NY), Michael (b. 1846 in CT), Ellen (b. 1849 in CT), Thomas (b. 1851 in CT), Daniel (b. 1854 in CT), and Charles (b. 1855 in CT).
When did the Moloneys move from Connecticut to Missouri?
