The Potato Harvest
Paul Henry, 1876-1958
Some notes on the onging genealogical research:

Spelling and Pronunciation
Records that I have seen show Owen's last name as "Murnan" and "Murnen," but never with the more common spelling "Murnane." However, it is nearly certain that the "e" ending was lost in the crossing somehow. For instance, folks in Ireland pronounce "Murnane" as "Murnan" (with the accent on the second syllable, and a short vowel), which Northern Midland US dialect could easily flatten to "Murnen," which gets the accent on the first syllable. Therefore, I will continue to list Owen as Owen Murnan(e) to preserve a sense of the name in transition--until I have further reason to list him otherwise. We Murnens are nearly certainly "Murnanes" from County Cork, Ireland. However, we have yet to locate any ship passenger lists showing an Owen and Catherine Murnan(e), or any information about Timothy Murnane and Nora Sullivan back in Ireland.

Locating the Home Parish or Townland
We have some reason to believe that our Murnanes have some connection to Inchigeelagh parish in West Cork. Jean Lynn found evidence of a great concentration of Cronins and (O)Sullivans at Inchigeelagh, and started digging through microfilm several years ago. She found nothing conclusive, and even a letter to the parish went unanswered. I was recently in phone contact with the parish priest at Inchigeelagh, who looked at the now computerized records. He tells me there was no Owen or Patrick Murnane born in that parish. Nevertheless, there is some reason to believe that Inchigeelagh might be Catherine Cronin's home parish. Although a look at marriage records recently show me that Owen and Catherine were NOT married in this parish (nor were they married in Macroom parish, which is the next parish eastward toward Cork City), the PP at Inchigeelagh did tell me that there were a number of Catherine and John Cronins born during the time period from 1819-1825. In fact, there was a set of twins John and Catherine Cronin born in 1820. So I am still holding out hope that some deeper research into Inchigeelagh might help me pin Catherine Cronin to that parish. When I receive the printouts from Inchigeelagh in the mail, I'll post them to this site. However, the fact that the marriage did not take place at Inchigeelagh makes it less and less likely a home parish for Catherine.

Also, I had thought that Caheragh was another possible parish for Owen Murnane. Twenty years ago, Uncle Edgar received information that there were two Owen Murnanes who were householders in Caheragh parish in the 1840s. Recent email with Timothy Murnane of New Jersey confirms that one of the Owen Murnanes was his great grandfather. That leaves one Owen still unaccounted for. However, I recently received word from the PP at Caheragh that there is no record of either Owen, Catherine, Patrick, John Cronin, Timothy, or Nora. Although this seems pretty conclusive, I still don't know who the other Owen was from Caheragh, so I won't close the door just yet.

My next step in locating the ancestors in Ireland is to systematically explore the surrounding parishes via microfilm of parish registries. I'll get started as soon as I can, but family duties have kept me from mobilizing as of yet.

The Missing "Plattsburgh" Murnanes
To this day we do not know what might have become of the "Plattsburgh" Murnanes. We do not even know how they might have spelled their name in the US. I have made some inquiries to a short list of about 6 Murnanes living in Plattsburgh, but James Murnane of Plattsburgh tells me that he and all living Murnanes in Plattsburgh are members of Joe and Tim Murnanes' clan. Tim Murnane of Haverstraw, NY, brother of Joe Murnane of Williamson, NY, tells me the same. So we cannot lay claim to the Plattsburgh Murnanes.

As for hunting down the missing "Plattsburgh" Murnanes, I am preparing a two-fold (or maybe three-fold) approach. First, although Joseph Murnane lays claim to the Plattsburgh folks, there is a "J. Mernan" that appears on his map of Chateaugay circa 1876 that he cannot link to his family. Chateaugay is not far from Plattsburgh, and the Mernan on the map might be Owen's brother. So, the first approach will be simply to post a clear inquiry request on the murnane.org website for information regarding this branch of Murnanes. The second approach will be to send out a large mailing to Murnane variants in the state of New York, and see what turns up. Netscape people finder has given me a number of New York Staters with names such as Mernan, Mernin, Murnan, Murnane. The third and paisntaking approach, which will have to be done eventually, is to search census records for all of the northern counties of New York State for the years between 1845-1900 and beyond, and cross-reference that information with obituaries and parish baptism and marriage records until we can conclusively pinpoint Owen Murnan(e)'s missing brother. Let's hope for patience and a bit of luck this time around.

Making New Contacts
Finally, a great bit of news. I have made contact with Kathryn McNulty, the daughter of Florence Murnen MacDonald. With a little help from Aunt Mary Alice Murnen, I played a hunch and found her address. The hunch paid off. Kathryn and family are doing well. She has given me a list of names and addresses in order to make contact with the rest of the descendants of Michael Murnen.

That's all for now! Tim

Updated 17 Feb 2001