Margaret A. Murphy Death Record
By August of 1850, John Murphy was living with the Cox family in the South Ward of the City of Newark in New Jersey. He was employed as a cabinetmaker. Another Irish immigrant, Margaret A. Murphy, lived nearby with the Blauvelt family. The 1850 Federal Census indicates she could neither read nor write. Shortly after, on September 26, 1850, John and Margaret were married at St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, located at 91 Washington Street in Newark.
I have no evidence whether John and Margaret knew each other before arriving in America. For that matter, I don't know when Margaret arrived or where in Ireland she came from. She was born in Ireland around 1827. On her marriage certificate, she listed her father as Miles Murphy; her mother's name was Jane.
John and Margaret had four children that I know of: John E. Murphy, born June 23, 1851; Catherine Theresa Murphy, born October 14, 1852; Mary Elizabeth Murphy , born March 1860; Matthew F. Murphy (my great-grandfather), born February 25, 1863.
Nearly two years after my great-grandfather Matthew was born, Margaret died a few days before Christmas on December 22, 1864, from a "uterine hemorrhage". She was only 38 years old. We have no evidence of where she might be buried. Given the time frame, it's possible she died giving birth to another child, but there is no evidence of any such birth. John was left with four small children: John E. (13); Catherine (11); Mary (4); and 1-year-old Matthew.
Three and a half years later, John married Mary Elizabeth Rollins on April 20, 1868. Like Margaret, Mary was born in Ireland in 1827. She was about 40 years old at the time she married John, but there is no evidence she had been married previously, nor of any previous children.
