Well, if I could find just ONE piece of information, it would be the birthplace of my great-great grandmother, Emma Anna Murphy. Here is what we know, working backwards:

1. My great-grandpa, Harrison Clifford Shaw, died in 1970. His death certificate gives his mother's place of birth as Nova Scotia.

2. Emma Anna (Murphy) (Regan) Shaw died 14 Mar 1945. Her death cert gives her place of birth as Portland, Maine, but the town hall has nothing on her. It gives us an estimated birth year of 1861.

3. The 1930 and 1920 censuses both give her birth year as 1863 and her place of birth as Maine, with her parents as Canadian.

4. The 1910 census gives her birth year as 1865, and her place of birth as Massachusetts, with her parents also from Massachusetts. This is incorrect - there is no birth record for her whatsoever anywhere in Massachusetts.

5. The 1900 census gives her birth year as 1863 and her place of birth as Massachusetts, but her parents' places of birth as England and Scotland.

6. Her marriage record to my great-great grandpa, Erastus Bartlett Shaw, gives Emma Anna Regan (maiden name Murphy) as age 25 (born 1863) and her birth place as Nova Scotia.

7. We know she owned a store. The grandparents tell us children it was in Cambridge, but we haven't found evidence yet. All we know is that the Middleboro, MA directory for 1897 and 1899 show her as having a grocery store and a "dining room". But I wonder if this was run out of her own home...

I am inclined to believe Nova Scotia is correct based on the fact that she would have had to give her own details to obtain the marriage license. But we all know how the census can fluctuate on facts, and is usually incorrect.

We know her parents are John Patrick Murphy and Mary Fras(h)er. So WHERE in Nova Scotia was Emma Anna Murphy born, about March 1863, to such parents?

Furthermore, did she have siblings and what was the first name of her first husband? Did he die? When and where?

I have a LONG list of research efforts made, but no success yet! If I could find her birth place, I would like to think I could connect her birth to her 2nd marriage to my great-great grandfather!

Wendy (Wood) Hawksley
Delaware

I think that is a great suggestion - that we update our brick walls. I still know NOTHING on my great-great grandmother. And, being here in S. Korea, I'm even further away from finding answers! But I hope that someday I'll be much closer.

Double checked one thing...which I am sure was just a misprint for you.....1900 says she was born in Maine. Not that that lessens the confusion for you any. Wonder if there was any benefit for her to say she was born in Maine as opposed to Nova Scotia? Of course the transcript also says her son is 91 years old.!!!!!!!!

Stephanie

I found them in a directory for Middleboro 1928-29. Did not know if you had seen that one. Honestly I don't understand some of the abbreviations they use.....but anyway...I have saved it if you want me to e-mail you the image.

Steph

Hi Steph,

I am still befuddled at the inconsistencies in the census. I have a folder devoted to Emma with a timeline, every single bit of info I have ever found, etc. And I've searched the censuses for 1870 and 1880 for Maine and Massachusetts to find her; nada. *sigh* I have an idea of who she might be in the 1881 census - she MIGHT be the Emma Murphy living with a lawyer, W. B. McSweeney. Very odd - adds to the mystery. If so, she had a sister named Alice, and that wouldn't be too far-fetched... Emma's son, Harrison, named one of his daughters Alice M. (Murphy???).

In fact, when I look at Harrison's children, I see a very definite naming pattern for the first 4 children - children #1 and 3 seem to have names from his side, children #2 and 4 seem to be named after his wife's family.

Sooo I'm following up on the McSweeney connection - why would 2 girls live with a lawyer? Emma supposedly came from a wealthy family, so if her parents died when she was young, then living with a lawyer might not be such a strange thing.

I definitely need to find legal records for Nova Scotia to see if there is a guardianship of some sort and that will either solve part of the mystery, or prove that the Emma Murphy in the 1881 census is NOT mine, and leave me to move on to other sources.

Thanks for the directory information - I have dug up every Middleborough directory available (sometimes via Ancestry, sometimes at the Middleborough library).

I'd LOVE to find an 1887 or 1888 directory to see if there is an Emma Reagan (her first married name) in it! But those don't seem to exist... I scoured the library last time I was there and didn't find anything.

I'm still trying to figure out Emma's first husband's first name. She didn't marry him in Nova Scotia - I don't find their marriage at www.novascotiagenealogy.com anyhow...

So I think she may have come to Maine and married him sometime after 1880. Then he either died in Maine or Massachusetts. However, if I try to look at every single Reagan or Regan death in Massachusetts between 1881 and 1888, I will go cross-eyed. LOL

Thanks again for your search and questions! On the Maine thing, I think she came in to America through Maine, and had her first marriage there. So I'm sure whoever was responding to the census taker made an error.