Grandma Curry's Family...The Butcher Side

I found some interesting information about the Butcher side of the family...first here is the Butcher family tree. Note: I was not able to substantiate a lot of this...and relied heavily on the work of other people...so there is a margin of error build into the information I am about to share.


(Click on the images to enlarge.)




















I traced Grandma Curry's family all the way back to 1593 in St. Lawrence Jewry, London England and the baptism of her 10th Great-Grandfather, Thomas Goodfellow. His father, as listed on the copy of his baptismal record below, was Jon Goodfellow. I have to assume that because I was able to go back so far that this family had some profession, although I did not find anything else about them until I stumbled upon some cemetery records from Surrey County North Carolina.














James Butcher, Grandma Curry's Great-Grandfather, was born in Tingewick Buckinghamshire England in 1757. He married Sarah Sally Prichett and at some point sets sail for America. They lived in Surrey County North Carolina. There is an abandoned private cemetery in Rockford North Carolina that is said to be the James Butcher Family Cemetery. Click this link to read about the cemetery. Buried there are the father, James Sr, his wife Sally, their daughter Margaret, their son James Jr, his wife Elizabeth Freeman, their son Chadwell and his wife Frances. That would be a neat place to visit.

I found in the 1900 Census a listing for a farmer in Walnut Grove Missouri by the name of Thomas Jefferson Butcher Jr. He was head of household and a 43 year old widower. His wife, Josephine Ann Evans, passed away in 1895, just two years after Grandma Curry was born. He had a total of 6 children in the house...all in school. Their names were Fred 17, Claude 14, Nellie 12, Julia 10, Malinda 9 and Lela 6. He had a niece named Shaull Fannie who was 19 years old living with him at this time. One neat thing to note here...you will see an entry in that same page of the census that lists Stephen Evans, who is Josephine's father. At this time he is a 64 year old widower with 4 young children at home and his mother Melinda 83 also lives with them. Stephen is also a farmer. This same year Thomas Jr married Lydia Hengon.







The 1910 census again shows Thomas Jefferson Butcher married to second wife Liddie Butcher living with Lizzie (Lela) 19, Marie 6 and Wilbur 2. In the 1920 census, Wilbur 63 and Lydia live with their two young children Marie 16 and Wilbur 12.







In that same 1920 census we see RJ Curry and (Lela) Lizzie after they homesteaded in Colorado with 2 kids...Myrtle R. (7) and Grace V. (4.5). Was Aunt Ruth's name MYRTLE!?






Grandma and Grandpa Curry married on April 24, 1911 in Polk County and had 5 daughters. The marriage license states that he was over 21 and she was over 18... but she was born in 1893, which made her 17, just shy of her 18th birthday, when they married.

Murphy/Cody Family Tree

(Note: click any image to enlarge)

This is my Grandfather. His name is Edmund Philip Murphy. He was born in the state of Connecticut in December of 1922. He married Genevieve Curry and they had 4 children. Their names are Margaret Mary Murphy, James Patrick Murphy, Ann Marie Murphy and John Kendall Murphy. They have eleven grandchildren and at the time this is being written they have 7 great grandchildren with one more on the way. Grandpa had a long career in the military. The family lived all over, including California, Mississippi, England and Colorado, where they now call home. I decided to research my family history to see what I could learn about our family of 34.

Grandpa's father's was John Kendall Murphy. He was born September 8, 1885 also in Connecticut. He died in 1940. Census records from 1900 show my Great-Grandfather living in Bridgeport in Fairfield County Connecticut at the age of 14. Both of his parents were born in Ireland. At that young age, he did not live with his parents and he was not in school. He worked as a shirt cutter, which carried him through a life long career as a Tailor. He lived with a Cousin named Bridge Puchy (or at least that is what it appears to be...handwritten and hard to decipher) who was 36 years old (immigrated from Ireland 1880) and her three nieces, Edy Murphy who was 23 (immigrated from Ireland 1884), Mary A. Murphy who was 21 (immigrated from Ireland in 1884) and Malley E. Murphy who was 16 (born in New York).

I came across my Great-Grandfather John's WW1 Draft Card:

I found a 1930 census that showed my Great Grandparents, John K Murphy and May Frances Cody Murphy living with her parents, John Cody and Hattie E Cody along with my Grandfather, who was just 7 years old and his brother John Jr who was just a baby. My Great-Grandfather, John, was a Clothing Merchant and his father-in-law (my Great-Great Grandfather) was a police officer with the rank of Lieutenant, at that time.

John Kendall Murphy's parents were Philip Murphy and Mary Traehey. They were born in Cork County, Ireland. Unfortunately, I was not able to find out anything further about them.

My Great-Grandmother's name was May Frances Cody (John's wife), but we called her Nana. She was born on August 5, 1893. I actually did get to meet her when I was a child. She was a wonderful woman and I feel so lucky that I got to meet her. At the time she lived in Clearwater, Florida with her brother Edmund Cody, who was a retired Monsignor in the Catholic Church, and their cousin Irene, who we called Aunt Irene. My mother and I went to visit them before we moved to Germany somewhere around 1978. I remember sleeping on a fold out couch in their sun room and playing cards with them. They had a very chubby dachshund that they fed food they cooked for her on their living room couch. I have never seen such a spoiled dog! Nana died March 19, 1982. This is a picture of her:

Nana's parents were John J. Cody (born June 1866 in Connecticut) and Hattie E. Cripps (born May 1866 in Massachusetts). They were married in Connecticut in 1893. According to the 1880 census, Hattie was working in the cotton mill at age 14. John and Hattie had three children, May Frances Cody (My Great-Grandmother Nana), Edmond R. Cody (Uncle Edmond, born 1896) and A. Edward Cody (born 1897). Hattie's mother Mary lived with them at this time.

John J. Cody's parents were John J. Cody Sr. (He was born 1836 in Kilkenny County Ireland and Ann F. Cody (born 1840 Kilkenny County, Ireland.) This is the passenger list from the Ship called the Atmosphere that carried him to New York City from Liverpool England. He arrived in New York on March 20, 1865 when he was 29 years old. Presumably Ann was with him as just one year later their son John Jr was born.

According to the 1880 census they had three children, John Jr, Thomas and Elizabeth. John was a Rail Road laborer. John J. Cody Sr's mother's name was Margaret Cody (born in 1802 in Ireland). Hattie Cripps parents were Matthew A. Cripps (born 1830 in British America) who was a carpenter by trade, and Mary Cripps (born about 1830 also in British America).

This is an excerpt from a recent letter I received from my Grandfather, with a little information about the family history:

"My Dad's parents were Philip & Mary Murphy and they came from County Cork in Ireland. Grandma Murphy's maiden name was Traehey. They were both dead long before I was born.

My Grandma Cody's maiden name was Cripps and her first name was Hattie. Mary was my great grandma's first name. The Cripps family were all cousins of Sir Stafford Cripps, the Chancellor of the Exchequer under Clement Attlee, the Prime Minister at the end of WWII.

My Dad's siblings were Edward William (Ed) , Mary (Mame) who was my Godmother, Helen who was called Nell.

My Great Grandfather Cody was John J Cody Sr. He came from Kilkenny County Ireland and never learned to read. He was a section hand on the New Haven Rail Road. He learned how to sign his name on his checks. When he died he owned 7 tenement houses and a store on Warren Street in Bridgeport, Connecticut. My Pa used to collect the rents each month after he inherited the property. His only brother, Jimmy, had died as a young man.

My Mom told me that Great Grandpa Cody was thrilled to hold me on his lap when I was little baby. He died when I was two years old."

My next family tree blog will be about my Grandmother's Curry/Butcher Family.