The period between 1937 and 1949 - with a bit of a gap during WWII - was somewhat a Golden Age of McMurtry/McMurtrie genealogy.
The thing that made it so special was that there was a tremendous cross-fertilization and exchange going on between family historians. Each of the involved family researchers was doing or had done an impressive amount of work on their own independently. But now there was a sharing of their information and themselves with their genealogical peers.
There was also a passing on of the genealogical torch, so to speak. The generation born in the third quarter of the 1800s passing on their accumulated historical "fortunes" to the generation born at the turn of the century and even to one "youngster" born in 1920.
All this received a great stimulus as a result of the worldwide vision of Alexander David McMurtrie.
Alexander David was not content to just trace his own McMurtries of Barr Parish, Ayrshire, Canada and Australia. He wanted to compile a collection of all McMurtrie families throughout the world. And so, the breadth of his interest enabled him to become a welcome collaborator with family historians in many branches of the family.
In June 1938, almost at the beginning of his search for McMurtrie roots, he was led to Frederick James McMurtrie (1867-1947) in nearby Detroit. Frederick James shared his knowledge of his own central Pennsylvania family (CF 112) as well as the Philadelphia and New Jersey families and numerous references to unrelated families. Frederick James had only a few years before published a history of the McMurtries in serial form in a rural New Jersey newspaper. By the end of the year, A.D. had also made contact with Edith McMurtrie (1883-1947) of the colonial Philadelphia family and with Adnah McMurtrie (1872-1946/7) of the Somerset Co., New Jersey family. Adnah opened up to A.D. the wealth of information about the New Jersey families as well data on the VA-KY-Indiana, Irish "trys", and Canadian "trys" that Adnah had encountered during his heyday in the first two decades of the century.
Following up on a central Pennsylvania family in Hazelton, PA, that Frederick James had told him about brought a response in 1939 from Ira Smith Brown who was in the process of compiling a history of one of the Pennsylvania branches of the NJ family. Through Adnah, A.D. met Miss Susan McMurtry (1862-1948) and began joint research efforts into the Virginia-Central Kentucky-Indiana family. In 1941, he found Charles Leroy McMurtry of Pennsylvania and the western Pennsylvania branch of the New Jersey families. Charles Leroy, in his travels, also came up with leads to other branches of the family including the various Philadelphia families from Scotland and central Pennsylvania. Following up on a LIFE magazine reference sent to him by a cousin in Australia about a McMurtry decorated due to acts at Pearl Harbor, encountered the Great McMurtry Clan.
In 1945, A.D.'s correspondent, Miss Edith McMurtrie of Philadelphia led David C. McMurtry (born 1920) to contact A.D. David (or D.C. as his family called him) had just begun his genealogical inquiries while in the military in response to requests from his aunt Zelma. This led in turn to A.D. beginning a long and productive correspondence with Zelma McMurtry (wife of David's uncle Robert b 1881) who was tracking down the innumerable branches of the central Kentucky families. Through Zelma, he obtained data from Imogene McMurtry, grand-daughter of California Gold Rush pioneer, Dr. William McMurtry (1802-1892), who had written a brief family sketch a few years before his death. He also began exchanges with David McMurtrie Gregg of the colonial Huntingdon, PA family. And he facilitated all these exchanges while at the same time writing hundreds of letters doing his own original research into families from Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, Canada and the US.
Reading their correspondence, one gets a sense of the richness of the collection being assembled by A.D. The history that was being preserved that would otherwise have been lost. The history that might have collected dust in boxes in the homes of disinterested relatives until thrown away without appreciation of the value of the materials.
So, I have included in this microfilm the correspondence of these outstanding researchers so that future historians can go back in time and watch the family history being written before their eyes. I hope you enjoy this reading as much as I have.
All this exchange culminated in A.D.'s whirlwind trip in 1948 through the United States visiting family historians. He visited with Zelma in Ohio, David in Lexington, Charles Leroy in Philadelphia suburbs, David McMurtrie Gregg in Reading, Ira Smith Brown at the McMurtrie reunion in Pennsylvania.
I have also included here some of the earlier correspondence on family origins. Adnah's work in the 1910s, Miss Myra's correspondence in the 1910s, early letters of the colonial Philadelphia families, letters from the late 1800s from the Teetor research on the New Jersey/Pennsylvania families. Elsewhere I have included sketches of family historians - some of whom pre-date and some post-date the "Golden Age" - whose contributions to the family history have been immense!
These letters are principally letters written to John McMurtry between 1895 and 1915, mostly from his cousin Miss Myra McMurtry, but also a few from Miss Susan McMurtry, Adnah McMurtrie, and Tillman McMurtry. These letters were loaned to Zelma McMurtry in the summer of 1949 and she proceeded to make copies by typewriter. These letters make clear the assertions of Dr. S.S. Todd in 1895 relative to the early origins of the McMurtrys in Virginia, though the ultimate source of Dr. Todd's information is never stated. It also describes the futile search of the McMurtrys for Dr. Todd's manuscript after his death. To this day, the manuscript has never seen the light of day and David McMurtry believes it was destroyed.
Adnah's work is very impressive. His principal contribution was in researching the descendants of Robert McMurtry (1749-1822), son of Thomas of Somerset Co., NJ, in unearthing data on Thomas and Thomas' brother Joseph in Sussex Co. He also accumulated data from numerous other families. In writing to A.D. in 1939, he also identified Joseph McMurtry (1764-1846) of north-western Pennsylvania and the John who married Margaret Gomer in 1781 as two of the "children of my son James" mentioned in Thomas' will. A decade later, this enabled A.D. to connect the Great McMurtry Clan of Tennessee to the NJ McMurtrys.
Adnah seems to have been very active between 1903 and 1914 - between the ages of 31 and 42. Here are some of the contacts he made:
1903 Agnes Shaw of Dalmellington (CF 19)
1906 Henry McMurtry (1830-190?) in New Brunswick, descendants of Alexander of Orange Co., NY (CF 108)
1906 Lawrence McMurtrie in New York City (CF 16)
1911 Charles Leroy McMurtry, descendant of Joseph McMurtry (1764-1846) of Crawford Co., PA (CF 110)
1911 Alexander Hay Hill McMurtry in Belfast of CF 121, also data on (CF14)
1911 Samuel A. McMurtry, Montreal - Bowmanville, Ontario family (CF 202)
1914 Susan McMurtry of Kentucky (CF 111)
1933 Uz McMurtrie of Indiana (CF 101)
Adnah's research uncovered the Augusta Co., VA references to Samuel, John, Alex, Sarah, Joseph; references to James and Joseph in Bedford Co, VA; 1790 census records for many states; NJ Archives, PA archives, Scottish parish records, early NJ wills, 1834 Supreme Court Case involving original McMurtrie land in Sussex Co., NJ, and much more.
In describing Susan McMurtry he wrote to A.D., "Sue McMurtry never jumped to conclusions - never gave dates unless she could check them. If she estimated she said so. ... She doubted very much the early dates given (about the early VA McM) - was sure they were guesses."
Adnah noted the discrepancies between Tillman McM and Miss Susan versions of the first generations of the VA McM and the connection to Joseph of PA/NJ, but did not sort them out. He was of the opinion that Tillman McM "was a guesser."
Adnah plotted the 1747 land boundaries for Thomas McM land, but never located this land. He did locate the Belvidere land because of the easily identifiable references to creek intersections.
Soon after Frederick J. McMurtrie published his Mcmurtrie history series in the Blairstown NJ Press in 1934, Adnah wrote the paper and was soon contacted by Frederick J. As Adnah describes it, "At first, I thought I had found a gold mine, but soon discovered it was a "mare's nest" (worm's nest?)."
I have included in this publication much of Adnah's 1939 transmitting of data to A.D., his early maps of the Thomas land, correspondence from various historians and informants, but not the voluminous letters from his cousins in compiling the Robert McMurtry line. These letters will remain as original documents to be filed with the A.D. collection in Lexington.
I never realized what a crucial role Zelma played in the accumulation of McMurtry family history until a few years after her death when I read her correspondence to A.D. She collected the evidence about the Todd/McMurtry history from several family members - including the correspondence to John McMurtry of Marshall, Indiana from Miss Myra McMurtry at the turn of the century which detailed the 1890s assertions of Dr. S.S. Todd about the Virginia McMurtrys. She wrote innumerable letters to descendants of the Central Kentucky families and assembled a quite complete picture of those families.
Her interest in the genealogy was spurred to active involvement as a result of a physical ailment which caused her to have to spend a lot of time at home. So, she developed the family history as a hobby because it was something she could do at home with pen, paper and stamps.
In her correspondence with A.D., even as early as 1946, she joked about their "arguing" about the first generation McMs. She seems eventually to have come to the conclusion that Dr. Todd had confused things and that Joseph and James of Virginia were the Joseph and James of the New Jersey 1761 will of Joseph McMurtrie and identified Alexander as father of Capt John, rather than Samuel as asserted by Dr. Todd. She was helped to this conclusion by David C. McMurtry who found the evidence while he was in Virginia that Sarah McMurtry was not a sister of the McMurtrys, but rather was the widow of a McMurtry. She also read the letters of Adnah that A.D. sent to her.
From Imogene McMurtry, she obtained a writeup about the early family history composed in the 1890s by Dr. William McMurtry of California.
She did her work during this period mainly by correspondence though she also reports summer trips to Harrison Co and Fayette Co and Louisville to search records there.
She lived in Georgetown, Ohio; then at the end of the war moved to Waverly; then, in Sept 1947, moved back to the farm in Georgetown. In 1959, she and her husband, Robert, moved to Lexington, Kentucky.
Though Zelma's interest was focused on the Kentucky McMurtrys, she occasionally uncovered data on other branches which she forwarded to A.D. For example, one of her ads drew a response from a Mrs. Neff (CF113), who provided some key information about one of the mysterious branches of the Philadelphia-Huntingdon family. Included here is correspondence from Zelma to D.C. and to A.D.
She once wrote to A.D., "I feel very proud that I am doing something that helps (the McMurtry collection) grow and therefore I'm doing something valuable and something that will live after I am gone. I am glad to have been a part of it."
According to Zelma, A.D. was very excited about Ira Smith Brown's plan to publish a book on his family history in 1948. It would have been the first McMurtrie history to make its way into print in this form. And many of A.D.'s letters make reference to Ira's plans with a sort of vicarious pride.
A.D. made contact with Ira through an indirect route. In Mar 1939, he wrote Mrs. Mary McMurtrie of Hazelton, PA; she forwarded his letter to Ira because of his interest in the family history. He then replied to A.D. that same month.
I have included here one of the two letters from Ira I found in A.D.'s collection. It was written in 1947 and explained how he worked from 1938 through 1944 compiling his history and many hours of leisure time since spent "whipping his data into shape."
In 1964, Ira's daughter Marion Preston of Hackettstown, NJ told me how disappointed Ira had been when the family would not support his efforts financially. Presumably he had asked them to make some sort of financial commitment - either firm orders or front money for the printer and there had not been enough interest to make a go of it. In 1968, in a labor of love dedicated to her father's memory, Marion assembled his manuscript and had it published. It was a wonderful book and a testimony to her father's skill and thoroughness as well as her own ability.
Ira's work was on the descendants of Joseph McMurtrie d 1761 Sussex Co., New Jersey - emphasizing his grandson Joseph McMurtrie who settled in north-central Pennsylvania.
David McMurtrie Gregg lived in Reading, PA - the town whose entrance greets the traveler with a statue of his father, David McMurtrie Gregg, military leader at the battle of Gettysburg, mounted on horseback on a tall pedestal. This mounted officer's mother was Ellen McMurtrie of the Huntingdon, PA McMurtries. David Gregg is the pre-eminent family historian of this family.
He worked on the Gregg genealogy and also spent much time on the McMurtries as well - recording the early history of David McMurtrie (d1785) of Philadelphia and Huntingdon and descendants of two lines - the son David who remained in Huntingdon and the son James who lived in West Township. He was helped in this effort by Miss Clara McMurtrie who eventually donated the early 19th century McMurtrie mansion to the county historical society and library. He was also helped by E. Stewart McMurtrie of the Huntingdon family. He also wrote to a number of distant cousins - descendants of the James line, notably Mrs. Archibald Dykins and Mrs. Jennie Kendig Brown.
He prepared 2 "monograms" - one on David's line and one on James' which were used by Mr. Roberts D. Royer in 1964 to produce a pamphlet on the McMurtries for the county historical society.
The correspondence here includes transcripts of letters written between 1880 and 1914 by various members of the family.
For further on David McMurtrie Gregg, see the microfilm of his writings in the Mormon library.
(A.D. attributes Mrs. Henry McMurtrie and Miss Edith McMurtrie of Philadelphia for information on the William McMurtrie line (nephew of the original David McM.), but I didn't find this correspondence in the collection.)
Charles Leroy McMurtry was my father's uncle. I don't remember Uncle Charley, but my dad tells me he visited us when I was a youngster and told us "squirrel stories".
Uncle Charley's interest in the family history resulted in my dad's making a family chart of Charley's data. This chart and letters from A.D. sent to my dad in 1948 were discovered by me in 1959 - a few weeks before A.D. died. These materials caught my interest and I began my family research.
Charley got interested in family history as a young man in his 30s. While working for a Pittsburgh newspaper in 1904, he wrote to his grandfather's second cousins in Harmonsburg, Crawford Co, PA inquiring as to family origins. The responses included extracts from the old family Bible in the possession of Sarah McMurtry Barrackman which made reference to Joseph McMurtry (1764-1846) as being born in Pluckemin, NJ. (Pluckemin is in Somerset Co, not terribly far from where Thomas McMurtry had settled in 1742.) This Bible was soon after destroyed in a fire. Charley's efforts were timely - if he had made his inquiries much later, this important part of the evidence as to Joseph's origins would have been lost.
Charley's other special contributions were in contacting McMurtries in his travels and passing data along to A.D. He also gathered data on the many Philadelphia families who came there after 1850.