The Farrell Farm
Friday, July 11th, 2014
A real interest in my ancestors came alive on May 17, 2014. My Dad had been researching his ancestry – particularly that of the elusive Farrell line – in recent days, and I would receive periodic updates on his findings. I had never met a single member my ancestral Farrell lineage beyond my Dad, as my grandfather Francis had died at the relatively young age of 52 on November 29, 1963. And as young as he was when he died, all of his siblings’ deaths had preceded his. Beyond that, even my Dad only knew two of his great-uncles on his Grandfather’s side. The mysteries were mounting up… Read the rest of this entry »
When I heard that my Grandpa Murphy had passed away just over a month shy of his 88th birthday, a flurry of forty years of memories went through my head. Memories of a strong and kind man who led an amazing life and reared a loving family. I always held a bit of a special position within that family as the oldest grandson. He was always there for any milestones that occurred in my life, up to and including dinner for my 40th birthday – which was the last time that I ever got to see him. It is strange to think that he will no longer be there to share birthdays, holidays, and that standard family gatherings that we hold throughout the year. The void left behind will never be filled. 
When my Mom was a kid, her extended family was not quite as close as our Murphy clan is today, but they were pretty tight-knit. My great grandmother Henrietta Murlin (nee Dwyer) lived in my Mom’s household for the last years of her life, so her children and grandchildren (that is, my Mom’s aunts and uncles and cousins) were paying frequent visits to their house. So although they didn’t do the mass family gatherings that my generations of cousins have been used to, they got to see each other quite a bit. 
On August 29, 2009, my Great-Uncle Duane Murphy passed away at the age of 90. Duane, whose official given name was Harry after his father, was 90 years old and living at the Englewood Manor nursing home, in the early stages of Alzheimier’s Disease. Duane (standing on the right in the photo at left with my Grandpa and their Mom Edith) was my Grandpa Murphy’s brother and he is fondly remembered by his family for his dry wit and his sarcastic sense of humor, which apparently trickled down to some of his extended family over the years. 
This year in our installment of photos from early Murphy Christmas celebrations, color comes to the Murphy family as we enjoy these photographs from the Christmas of 1967. Some appear to be taken on Christmas morning in the house on Cunnington Lane, while some later in the day for the Murphy family Christmas party. This in fact was not so much a ‘Murphy’ gathering but rather a ‘Murlin’ gathering, since the siblings present were those of my Grandma’s.