Hello,
I hope it is fine to reply to the thread, old as it is, to avoid a duplicate thread. I am a direct descendant of the Murrays and this generation of the family has always been difficult to research. I was hoping to try and obtain more information on the family. Indeed, a few things here are worth mentioning:
- Ann Jane (who was known as Annie) must be the second "Samuel", a dittography error.
- Merla seems to be a daughter of a first marriage of Thomas. This may be to a Mary McMullin, as there exists a marriage between a woman so-named and a Thomas Murray, although I must admit I never gave it much credit and can no longer find the GRO reference - I had crossed it all out as "WRONG" on my family tree.
- I am not too concerned with the misspelling of Amwlch. The enumerator has also written "earand", and I have seen some amusing mistakes over the years in censuses involving people who obviously had thick Irish or Welsh accents - or indeed had chosen fairly original names - which confused the enumerators (like Anna Stacia for Anastasia!). What is more problematic, of course, is that Samuel should not be from Denbighshire and Ann should not be from Amlwch, at least going by the place of birth on later censuses. However, I have long held the suspicion that some enumerators asked "Where are you from?" rather than "Where were you born?"
Each census provides contradictory information, so this is a particularly tough nut to crack, as I said. What's worse is that this man seems every bit as likely to be Thomas J. Murray, but his father is a James Murray, and not the Cheshire Thomas:
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/discoveryui-content/view/22875679:8767?ssrc=pt&tid=180176113&pid=252347639232. Thomas Murray in the 1851 census is proof, but not absolute proof, so I have never quite been satisfied with leaving the matter closed.
Kind regards,
Sessylt
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