Searching for information about my paternal grandmother, Mary Agnes Murphy

Thank you, and sorry, the internet was playing up when I I tried to post. My grandmother was Mary Agnes Murphy born around 1888 in Tipperary, the daughter of Margaret and Patrick. She married James Smith in 1918 in Bradford England and they had three children together. James died in 1923 and she married Percy Bannan in 1927 and they had two children together. She died on 29 November 1971 in London, at the age of 83.

I am really trying to find more information about her family and origins in Ireland. I have little to remember my grandmother by, apart from the holy water font, which commemorates her mother Margaret whom she brought to England to live with her and her husband in Bradford. I don’t know Margaret’s maiden name.

I have some old photos with names on the back, which were given to me after the death of my aunt (who had Alzheimer’s disease) I’m fairly sure these must have been relatives, but I don’t know the relationships.

I joined Ancestry, and took a DNA test, which shows I have a genetic link with a Mr Martin Patrick Ryan of Australia who, it turns out, also has the same photographs in his family papers, as well as a photograph of Mary Agnes that I have never seen before, but he doesn’t know how she relates to his family. This was the information he was able to give me:

“Attached is postcard picture of Mary that I found in my files.  Unfortunately, there are no notes on the back or reference in my files so far,  but I suspect she was their cousin or an Aunt. I am still checking.     The original Murphys original farmhouse was in a place called “ Meenk”  which is located about 2 km from Ballycarn which became latter farm where my grand uncle Patsy and sister Ellen lived, and my mother for a time after coming from Australia in 1937.   There were a number of Murphy’ families in meek & Ballycarn at the time, now all long gone.”

The 1901 census shows names that match the names given by Martin Ryan, and the names on the backs of my photographs, for a family in Ballycarn, Dolla. It lists a niece, Mary, but I have been unable to find out how she was related to the family. I can’t seem to get any further.

I was told by my late father that all my grandmother’s records were lost when her parish church was burned by the Black and Tans. I have an old Nenagh Times newspaper clipping he gave me, which records the Death of Mr Patrick Murphy of Curreeny, who had been a member of the Irish Volunteers. My father told me he was an uncle, and that other uncles had to make themselves scarce during the troubles, but I don’t think he knew much about it.

i will try to attach some of the photos I mentioned.

I would be very grateful for any further information about Mary. When I was a little girl, she was quite old and deaf from working in the Woollen Mills in Bradford, and she spoke very little.

Many thanks,

Vivienne Morgan