My name is James D. Murphy and I live in Pittsburgh, PA. My great grandfather, Dennis Murphy, emigrated from Taghmon, County Wexford, to the United States in 1843 at the age of 6 or 7. Can anyone help me find information about his parents, their residence in Taghmon and any relatives that may still be in Ireland? Any assistance will be appreciated.
James:
Your family left pre-famine and the name Murphy is very common in Ireland as you probably know. I looked on www.rootsireland.ie which is a pay site and they do not have the records for the Catholic church in Taghmon. The name of the church is St. Fintans. I tried to find a web site for the parish with no success.
Maybe you can search to see if you can locate a way to contact them because your only avenue would be to find church baptism records for the 1830s. (Civil registration of births did not start in Ireland until 1864). Maybe you can locate another entity in the town e.g another church and ask them for contact data for St. Fintans.
Roger McDonnell
There are headstones in Taghmon of Murphy, but I have no way of knowing if they are your family;
erected by Stephen Murphy (Coolcul) for
mother-Margaret (nee Kennedy); 16/2/1827 (84) b.1743
his two sons-Adam/James-who died young
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erected by Catherine Murphy (Tullacana) for
mother-Sarah (nee Roche); 20/1/1842 (46) b.1796
also her brother/sister who died young
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erected by Moses Murphy; (Growtown) for
father-Andrew; 31/3/1847 (72) b.1775
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Jack Mc Donald