More on the Murrays

I left off with the saga of Eliza J. Murray’s name, or names as the case may be. In earlier days before a birth certificate or some other legal ID was required for everything, there are many cases of names being changed, or people using a different variation of their name on every record we find. I have found several cases of men who have reversed the order of their middle and first names on different records.

As I moved on in the Murray family, the next document I had to enter was the birth record for Ina Belle Murray, shown below (click to enlarge).

Surprise, surprise. She was listed as Belle I. on the 1880 census, and she also filed an affidavit to change her name, on 29 May 1941. Bell is crossed off on the record, and “Ina Belle” written in. John Murray’s name has a middle name of Henry added in, and Mary’s maiden name is added below a crossed off Murray. The Lamunion Bible transcription lists “Innia Bell Murray”, born March 19, 1875.

Ever curious, I dropped my data entry project and searched for a birth record for Mary Ann and John Murray’s first child. For this firstborn, the bible transcriptions says, “William H. Murray born May 11, 1875”. The 1880 census says, “Murray, Wm. H.” age 5.”

The biggest surprise here is that “Wm T Murray’s” father is listed as Geo. H. The fact is, I would have never found this birth record if I had searched using “William”. I found it my searching for “Murray” in the father’s name, and using the year, 1875.

There’s more to learn, stay tuned.

One victory at a time, I am down to 690 items to enter into my genealogy database. When I started cleaning up and entering, the number stood at 1419. Moving right along, I hope to finish in 2 weeks or so. Maybe, if I don’t get side tracked looking for more records.