GENEALOGY LIFE
From Ellen to Eileen
A tale of genealogical serendipity
Many of us have a particular ancestor who calls to us louder than others, one with whom we feel a special kinship. For me, this is one of my great-great-grandmothers, Ellen Nelligan. Perhaps it’s because my own grandmother — her granddaughter — told me tales of her life. Or maybe it’s because she anchors the bottom row of my pedigree — my mother’s mother’s mother’s mother. Or it could just be because her name is fun to say, giving the tongue a workout pronouncing the syllables. But whatever the reason, I’ve always been a little more intrigued with Ellen than my other ancestors.
Ellen was born in County Kerry, Ireland in 1832 and lived until 1927, enjoying a generous life span that produced a healthy paper trail for her descendants to explore. She came to the U.S. in 1853, married a man named Edward Murphy, and settled in Jersey City. Records generated by her family hinted that she may have lived for a short while in New York before moving to New Jersey, but there were so many other leads to pursue that I never quite got around to the New York possibility — until a happy accident occurred.
Nun in the Family
Reading a family history publication, I came across a suggestion to try religious order records for nuns and priests in…
