Friday, July 2, 2010

Another exciting breakthrough!

I have definitely been on a role lately. I just uncovered an obscure book by Samuel T. Wiley called Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania that absolutely confirms my thought Elizabeth Cullen, the daughter of Thomas and Bridget Mary Burke Cullen, was married twice.

On my trip back east, I visited the Sullivan County Historical Society in Laporte. The information on the Irish Settlement families is fairly slim there. However, they did have some information on the Cullen family including documentation of a letter written to Bridget Mary Burke Cullen by an Elizabeth Haggerty. The letter is addressed to "Mother" and is dated 22 Feb 1866 sent from Tuscarora, Schuylkill county. In another letter by James Cullen written a few years earlier, he mentions he is pleased to hear Hugh Haggerty missed the draft. I surmised Hugh Haggerty must have been the second husband of Elizabeth Cullen.

The 1860 census confirms a Hugh and Elizabeth Haggerty in Tuscarora, Schuylkill county. Living with the family are Murphy children. It has long been established Elizabeth Cullen had married a Murphy.

Wiley's book contains a biography of Walter E. Murphy, the son of Elizabeth Cullen and Edward Murphy. In the biographical sketch, which is rather detailed, Wiley explains how Edward Murphy died at the age of twenty-four years and Elizabeth remarried Hugh Haggerty. The sketch also confirms Murphy was from County Wexford. This did not surprise me in the slightest. It seems more than likely he is connected to the Murphy family who later settled in and around Dushore. The Wexford families of the Irish Settlement are woven together in so many ways.

The Haggerty connection now opens up the possibility that Edward Haggerty, who is enumerated in Schuylkill county in 1840, is most likely related to Hugh Haggerty. It is also rather interesting to me Edward relocated to Wilmot township in Bradford county by 1850 especially since it seems to be the pattern of many of the Wexford families including the Cullens, Murphys, Kinsleys, Quinns, Burns, and O'Neills.

Another interesting point of this find is the use of the name Walter. It has been claimed Thomas Cullen had a son named Walter, but I have yet to find any documentation to support this. The fact Elizabeth named her son Walter may be a starting point.

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