Genealogy Forum UK

For ages I have been trying to find Murphy decendants of my Great Great grandparents, Patrick and Catharine Murphy, that came from County Wicklow in Ireland and settled in Oldbury in the mid 1850's.

Out of the blue my mother ssays her father had an illegiaitmate daughter to a Lillian Phipps, daughter of Samuel Phipps, in about 1945.

First time I had ever heard of my mother having a half sister!

Dad then said he had an uncle Samuel Phipps who was married to Catherine Murphy, his mother's sister.

He was sure this Samuel had a sister called Lily.

Sure enough, he is right.

So this half sister of my mother would be related to my father by marriage.

So not a direct Murphy relative but close enough.....

Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction!

I know some people don't like to find skeletons in their family history closets, but I feel that there have to be some in all our families!
There is a family rumour that someone was transported to Australia, but only having a vague idea of which part of the family it refers to I've not enough to track him (that's what the rumour says!) down. Who knows, when I got all the direct descendents done to my satisfaction I'll start checking out all the siblings etc!

Believe me, after you find a convict, nine times out of ten you will be proud of the convict.

Most were sent here for petty crimes or political reasons and many did far better than they would have in the country they were sent from.

MarkCDodd wrote:Believe me, after you find a convict, nine times out of ten you will be proud of the convict.

Most were sent here for petty crimes or political reasons and many did far better than they would have in the country they were sent from.

I'd love to be able to find the convict in our family, I'd be daft to think that all my ancestors were law abiding. We've uncovered drunks and bankrupts, people having several kids before marriage etc, and illegitimate children. Life was hard, and sometimes people did what they had to in order to survive.
Of course, there are the good guys too, people who gave their life for our freedom, and people who came from relatively little but made a good life for themselves.