Murphy
Murphy → Jordan → Emmett
The family connection is that Doris Jordan nee Murphy has a daughter that married into the Emmett family.
Let’s start with Thomas Murphy a coal miner and his wife Jessie. They had a son called Thomas (born approx 1866) and he married Susan Leslie (born approx 1869) in October 1893 in Glasgow. At the time of marriage to Susan, Thomas (born 1866) was a spirit salesman living at 51 North Wallace Street in Glasgow, and Susan was a power loom weaver forewoman who lived at 185 Wolseley Street.
They also had a son called Thomas, who was born on the 27th March 1896 in Linlithgow, Scotland, and whilst it doesn’t appear on his birth certificate, on his marriage certificate the middle name Leslie appears. On the 24th February 1917, Thomas (grandson of Jessie), married Charlotte Maria May Trollope, in Swansea in Wales. At the time of the marriage Thomas was serving in the army during WWI. Surprisingly on the marriage certificate, it states Thomas (b 1896) father’s name is James, not Thomas, but probably using a middle name that is preferred.
Thomas (b 1896) was a private in the 9th Royal Scots and his regiment number is 3576. During the war, he would write affectionate postcards to his wife May (she didn’t use her first name), and the family still have these postcards from when he was in Scotland and France.
Thomas and May had two daughters and a son, and the names Thomas and Leslie continued into another generation being used for their son ‘Thomas Andrew Leslie Murphy’. Their daughters were called Doris and Margaret (known as Peggy).
After the war, it is unknown what happened between Thomas and May, but it is said that he drifted, perhaps seeking work, and sadly May moved in with her parents at 46 Miers Street in Swansea, and took a job at the Post Office, and it seems the relationship ended. No verification has yet been found, but it is said that Thomas returned to Scotland and died around 1939.
Sadly Peggy died during the second world war, and a newspaper clipping was found in the Trollope family bible:
Burials.
Feb. 12 – Margaret Murphy, 14 Wassail Square, aged 18 years.
Margaret (Peggy) Murphy met with a tragic end at Rhyl through a motor accident only seven weeks after she had left home to join the A.T.S. The body was brought back to Swansea for internment at Danygraig, and the first portion of service was held in St. Thomas Church where the three clergy of the Parish took part, and Mr. L.W. Ward was at the organ.
The Church was fairly full, and a contingent of the A.T.S. attended and then walked each side of the hearse to the Cemetery. We were in the coach nearest to them and so could not fail to observe how very correctly and smartly they marched and looked. We should like to have complimented the officer, but there was no opportunity. When Peggy called at the Vicarage to wish us good-bye we felt that one of our best was leaving, but little did we think then that we should see her face no more, but so it proved.
We shall miss her immensely in our Church circle as she was the most active and interested of all our young girls. She was more attentive to visitors and the soldiers than any of our sidesmen, and much of their real work was left for her to do, such as providing books and collecting them after the service. She was nearly always the first to arrive in Church and the last to leave. All that she did about the Church was done quietly, calmly, unhurried and with dignity such as befitted the House of God.
Yes, we shall miss her immensely.
Peggy’s brother Leslie, and her sister Doris would go on to have children, and today there are still Thomas and May Murphy descendants in England and Wales.
Last updated: 24th October 2020