Irish America

Irish America

Family Geneaology

How I Found My Elusive John Murphy

By Megan Smolenyak
IA Newsletter
April 6, 2024

by Leave a Comment

The Deadly Trail that Finally Revealed a Phantom Branch of My Family Tree My earliest American-born ancestor was my great-great-grandfather, Edward Murphy. It took a while to figure this out as the skimpy traces he left claimed both New York and Ireland as his birthplace, but then I stumbled across his baptism. To my delight, he was christened in the historic St. James … [Read more...] about How I Found My Elusive John Murphy

Roots: Doherty or O’Doherty

By James G. Ryan

May/June 1995

by Leave a Comment

The Doherty or O'Doherty name has many variations, including (O) Dougherty, Daugherty, Docherty and Doharty. The name, derived from the Gaelic O'Dochartaigh, means (descended) from Dochartach. Dochartach was a descendant of the infamous "Niall of the Nine Hostages," who was king of Ireland in the fourth century. Tradition has it that Niall was responsible for bringing Saint … [Read more...] about Roots: Doherty or O’Doherty

Roots: Land Records in Irish Family History

By James G. Ryan

January/February 1995

by Leave a Comment

In a previous article, we discussed the use of church records in researching family history. However, to access church records you will usually need to know where in Ireland an ancestor lived. Making this connection is often the main problem faced by Irish-Americans attempting to trace their roots back to Ireland. Whereas many root-seekers will know that their ancestor was from … [Read more...] about Roots: Land Records in Irish Family History