TO
IRELAND
| Our cousins, Pat and
Vicky Moore, traveled to Ireland in the
summer of 2002 and visited Hacketstown,
County Carlow, where our Moore family
immigrated from in the 1850's. Vicky
provided an interesting description of
their trip, and the visit with Kathleen
(Murphy) Whelan, John & Larry Murphy,
and their families. The photos (next two
pages ) show remains of the old Moore
homestead and the town of Hacketstown
where our Moore ancestors lived. After
all these years the property is still in
the hands of descendants of the original
Moores. I'm sure
you're all wondering how the Murphy
family is related to us, and I will try
to explain the relationship as best I
can, and hopefully accurately. The
following information has been gathered
little by little over the years from
various sources, and of course there may
be errors. I welcome any corrections or
additions.
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FIRST
GENERATION KNOWN TO US IN IRELAND
LAWRENCE
MOORE AND ANN SWEENEY
Had the following children, some of whom
emigrated to the US in the 1850's.
1. John Moore -emigrated
to the US and settled in Hudson, St.
Croix County WI. Married Catherine
Gleason.
2. Thomas Moore - emigrated
to the US and settled in Auburn, Cayuga
County NY and married Ann Judge.
3. **Dennis
Moore, remained in Ireland and married
Bridget Dunne.
4. Patrick Moore (our
great-great grandfather)
emigrated to the US and settled in
Hudson, WI., moved to Stillwater,
Washington Co., and Swift County MN., and
later to St. Paul, Ramsey County
Minnesota. Married Norah McMahon.
5. Peter Moore, emigrated
to the US and settled first in Hudson,
WI., then to North Dakota, married Ann
Duffy.
6. Laurence Moore, emigrated
to the US and settled in Hudson, WI.,
later moved to Erin Twp. St. Croix county
WI, married Catherine Clancy.
7. Joseph Moore, emigrated
to the US and settled in Pierce County
WI. Unmarried.
8. Elisa Moore, remained
in Ireland and married Patrick McCabe.
9. Christopher Moore, emigrated
to the US and settled in Hudson, WI. and
married Bridget Dunn. |
Now
to explain the relationship to the Murphys who
still live in Ireland. It can be very
complicated, but hopefully you can follow along.
Please make note of the ** astericks.
Dennis
Moore and the sister Elisa (Moore) McCabe, were
the only siblings to remain in Ireland when the
rest of the brothers emigrated in the 1850's,
including our great-great grandfather, Patrick
Moore.
**Dennis Moore
(son of Lawrence Moore and Ann Sweeney) married
Bridget Dunne & had the
following children:
**Maryanne,
Bridget,
Elizabeth,
Lawrence,
Patrick,
Margaret,
Laurence,
Dennis Jr.
(The
two Laurences may have died young and the Patrick
has not yet been proved to be one of their
children).
**Maryanne Moore,
(daughter of Dennis Moore and Bridget Dunne)
married William Murphy in 1880 and had the
following children:
**John Murphy
Mary Murphy
Bridget Murphy
Dennis Murphy
William Murphy
Lawrence Murphy
Elizabeth Murphy
**John Murphy,
(son of Maryanne Moore and William Murphy),
married Kate Dalton, and had the following
children:
William
Murphy
Mary Murphy
**John Murphy (Who
Pat and Vicky Moore visited)
Sarah Murphy
James Murphy
**Kathleen
(Murphy) Whelan (Who Pat and Vicky Moore visited)
**Lawrence Murphy
(Who Pat & Vicky Moore visited)
Below
is Vicky's description of their trip:
| Hi, Claudia - We are back and
had a great time. Put 1100 miles on the
car, saw everything from the northeast
coast to the southwest coast. All
of Ireland is absolutely beautiful. We
had kind of planned to call John Murphy
on Friday and meet up with them on
Saturday, but then we realized Friday
morning we would be driving close to
Hacketstown so we dropped in unannounced.
We first stopped by the town of Carlow,
which is the county seat, to see if they
had any kind of family records, but
theirs only went back to 1860. She
referred us to the parish priest in
Hacketstown, a father McDonald if I
recall. He was not in when we got there,
so we went across the street to a pub to
grab a sandwhich. There we ran into a
local farmer named Jimmy Goss, and asked
if he knew the Moores or Murphy's and of
course he did. The last Moore that lived
on the family homestead apparently died a
few years back, but he brought us to meet
one of the other descendents, Kathleen
Whelan. She is John Murphy's younger
sister at age 78, and was overcome with
emotion at meeting family from
the US. She said everyone comes to
visit John since he's the family
historian, but it was the first time
anyone had stopped to see her. She
lives across the street from the
Moore family farmstead, in a home where
she raised 14 children. I'd encourage
anyone else who visits the area to stop
and meet her also, as it meant so much to
her. |
Kathleen (Murphy) Whelan
After
visiting with her for a while, she called John
who then came to escort us on the next leg of the
tour. He showed us the family farm with parts of
buildings dating back to the 1600's. It is
now farm storage buildings but you can still
see where the rooms of the house had been
attached. It overlooks 27 acres of rolling hilly
land, kind of like Wisconsin. Just down the road
from that, he showed us where 3 other homes had
stood, but are now moss covered stone walls.
After showing us the church in Rathnegrew
where the Moores had been baptised, married,
and buried, he then brought us to his home where
we met his wife and one of his sons. Amazingly
energetic, we could not believe he's 80. He's
planning a trip to Australia to visit one of his
son's who is there doing some research work for a
university. One of the neat things he showed us
was the local school archives from the 1800's,
with attendance records of many Moore and Murphy
children. He then called his nephew Brian Murphy
who came to escort us on the next part of the
journey. Many of the local roads had no name
that we could see and were not on our maps,
so it would be hard to find your way around
without help. At Brians home, we met his brother
William, parents (Larry is John's younger
brother), and their grandson Emmet. They have
another son living nearby who we did not meet.
They also have a castle in view from their front
yard - there are so many castles in Ireland that
not all are named or mapped. All three of the
families we met were excited to meet us, and full
of hospitality even though we dropped in with no
advance call. Each insisted on giving us the
traditional afternoon tea or coffee with a snack
- after about 8 cups Pat couldn't sleep till 4am
that night. With all the animated conversation,
we never did figure out exactly what the
relationship is, but are thinking Pat is second
cousin to John, Larry, and Kathleen. All they
said is that their mother was a Moore, we're
guessing their great grandfather was the brother
of Patrick Moore who came here around 1850.
Claudia, thank you so much for giving us the info
on the family tree - this made the highlight of
the vacation and would not have been possible
without your help. We shot 8 rolls of film and
almost 2 hours of video, would be happy to get
together and show you if you like. Our video
camera can plug right into the TV. Will also make
copies of the photos of all the relatives for you
to add to your archives.
Thanks again, Pat and Vicky Moore
Note: I can take credit for putting Pat and
Vicky, and the other relatives who have gone to
Ireland, in contact with John Murphy. However,
the real credit goes to Barbara Swedenburg of St.
Paul, Minnesota, who initially discovered the
town in which our Moores came from in Ireland. In
1989, after doing extensive research in public
records, she sent a letter to the newspaper in
Carlow, Ireland to inquire if anyone had
information on the Moore family. She received two
replies, one from John Murphy and one from his
brother, Lawrence. John Murphy is interested in
the family history as well, and has been very
helplful in providing information. He & his
family have warmly welcomed several of our
relatives who have made the visit to Hacketstown,
and given them the grand tour of the town and
surrounding areas where our Moore ancestors once
lived. His brother Larry still farms the land
originally owned by Lawrence Moore, who was born
in 1795.
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