Mary Murphy (Philo L. Ives Household) # 3: Good References?

I ended my last post wondering if the Mary Murphy in the 1870 Philo L. Ives household was the “Nurse” advertised for in the 1867 help wanted ad in the Hartford Daily Courant (See previous post). 

If so, she may have had help getting the job. 

I’ve been thinking about what it meant to provide “good references,” as this children’s nurse (aka “Nanny”) position required.  Who would have provided these references? 

Margaret Lynch-Brennan mentions several ways an Irish girl/woman could obtain a domestic job:  through relatives, word of mouth, through the Catholic Church, through the Irish-Catholic community, and sometimes through employment agencies, called "intelligence offices" [1]. 

I’ve already mentioned the Ellen Murphy employed as a domestic servant in Philo’s father-in-law’s household (See Monday’s post).  If Ellen and Mary were related, Ellen may have been instrumental in helping Mary gain employment with Philo. 

Also, St. Patrick’s Church, the Catholic church that Mary (Murphy) Carrigan (Annie's mother) likely attended (and was later married in) was not far from 7 High Street and was even closer to 88 Church Street, where Philo resided in 1870.             

Yet Margaret Lynch-Brennan also mentions problems Catholic domestic servants had with some employers who were annoyed by time taken off for obligatory Mass on Sundays and feast days, etc.  This suggests that certain employers would have preferred a domestic servant who was other than Catholic, and sometimes this meant not wanting to hire any Irish at all.  “Nevertheless, it was Irish girls who ended up meeting the middle-class demand for servants because native-born Americans eschewed this low-status occupation in which servants were stigmatized for their work” [2].

The 1867 Hartford Daily Courant ad, however, did not contain anti-Catholic or anti-Irish language.  I do think it contains language consistent with parents wanting the best possible care for their child, hence the desire for an “experienced” nurse who could provide the required “good references.”      

As far as local Hartford employment agencies in 1867 go, I haven’t discovered any, but I’ll keep looking. 

Now Mary was NOT the only domestic servant in Philo’s household in 1870.  Ellen Coffey (about 18-years-old) was younger than Mary, and was reported to have been born in Connecticut to parents of foreign birth (likely Ireland). 

And according to the census, Ellen had the advantage of being able to read and write, whereas Mary did not. 

Could Ellen (rather than Mary) have been the “Nurse” to young Edith Ives?  Yes, but Ellen would have been about 15 when the Hartford Daily Courant ad was placed.   Would a 15-year-old possess the experience necessary for the job?  Perhaps:  She may have had younger siblings to help care for.  But Mary was about five years older than Ellen and may have had even more experience.

Notes:

[1] Lynch-Brennan, Margaret.  “Ubiquitous Bridget:  Irish Immigrant Women in Domestic Service, 1840-1930,” Joseph Lee and Marion R. Casey, eds., Making the Irish American:  History of the Irish in the United States:  340; Google Books (http://www.books.google.com : accessed 24 October 2013).

[2] Ibid., p. 337.

Mary Murphy (Philo L. Ives Household) #2: Was She a Nurse?

One Mary Murphy was a domestic servant in the 1870 household of Philo L. Ives in Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut [1].

Today I decided to check the Hartford Daily Courant for help wanted ads.  Perhaps Mary answered one of these ads in order to secure a position as a domestic servant in Philo’s household.

I searched the Harford Courant Archives from 1860 to 1870 using street addresses found in Hartford city directories [2]:

Directory [3]	House Address for Philo L. Ives
1860-61	Not listed
1861-62	Not listed
1862-63	Not listed
1864-65	7 High
1865-66	7 High
1866-67	7 High
1867-68	7 High
1868-69	City Hotel
1869-70	88 Church
1870-71	88 Church

Mary is listed on the 1870 census as a domestic servant – so I searched for help wanted ads applying to 88 Church, but also 7 High Street in case Mary worked for the family there, too.

The most recent classified ad I found in the Hartford Courant archives for “88 Church” was indeed a help wanted ad – but printed in 1866 – before Philo had moved to Church Street.  It was a simple ad:

“WANTED – A competent girl to cook, wash and iron; also a girl to do second work.  Inquire at 88 Church St.” [4]

Since I didn’t find any ads past 1866 for “88 Church,” I decided to search for ads related to “7 High” Street.  I found three that may have applied to Philo, dating from 1863 to 1867.  The 1867 ad was simple too, but an eye-opener:

“WANTED – An experienced Nurse wanted to take care of a child four months old.  Good references required.  Apply to 7 High Street.” [5]

The ad was printed on 24 June 1867.  This means that if the four-month-old child belonged to Philo’s household at the time, that child may have been listed on the 1870 census around the age of three.  And, indeed, three-year-old Edith Ives appears in Philo’s household in 1870, just two lines above Mary Murphy’s name [6].

Was Mary Murphy a “Nurse?”   All that was required for this particular position were good references and experience.  

I will add more about nurses and domestic service in my next post as I learn more about domestic servants.  Remember that in 1870, “domestic servant” was a catch-all term in the census.  The census instructions to Assistant Marshalls specifically stated:

“The organization of domestic service has not proceeded so far in this country as to render it worth while to make distinction in the character of work.  Report all as 'domestic servants.’ ”  [7]

This would seem to include “nurses” who took care of four-month-old children.

Notes:

[1] 1870 U. S. census, Hartford County, Connecticut, population schedule, Hartford, p. 12, line 30, dwelling 93, family 98, Philo L. Ives household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 18 October 2013), citing FHL film 545,599, citing National Archives microfilm publication M593, roll 100.

[2] The Hartford Courant Archives are located online at http://www.courant.com.

[3] All data from Hartford city directories were found in the “U. S. City Directories, 1821-1989” database at Ancestry.com.

[4] Hartford Courant, archives, citing Hartford Daily Courant, 27 April 1866, p. 3; Hartford Courant (http://www.courant.com : accessed 22 October 2013).

[5] Ibid., Hartford Daily Courant, 24 June 1867, p. 5, accessed 22 October 2013.

[6] 1870 U. S. census, Hartford County, Connecticut, population schedule, Hartford, p. 12, line 30, dwelling 93, family 98, Philo L. Ives household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 18 October 2013), citing FHL film 545,599, citing National Archives microfilm publication M593, roll 100.

[7] “Ninth Census, United States, 1870, Instructions to Assistant Marshalls,” United States Census Bureau (http://www.census.gov : accessed 18 October 2013). 

Mary Murphy (Philo L. Ives Household): Possible Candidate for Annie Carrigan's Mother

One Mary Murphy appears as a domestic servant in the household of Philo L. Ives in 1870 – in Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut [1].

She was about 23 years old (born about 1847) in Ireland; she had parents of foreign birth; she could not read or write, and I don’t know if she was single, married, or widowed.

The Philo L. Ives household likely stood at 88 Church Street in Hartford [2].  Spruce Street, where “Lawrence Kerrigan” had likely lived in 1870 – appears close by, near the end of Church Street towards Spring Street in the second ward [3].

 

If one crossed the railroad tracks at Spruce Street in 1874, walked past Union Depot on Church Street, heading east, toward Ford and High Streets (next to Spruce), and turned left onto High Street in Ward 1, she would eventually come to what used to be Philo’s father’s residence at 13 High [4]. 

And while walking on Church Street in 1870, she may pass the residence of Willis Thrall, Philo’s father-in-law, at 63 Church [5]. 

Ten years earlier, Philo appears on Willis’ 1860 census in Ward 1 of Hartford, which also lists one Irish “domestic” named Ellen Murphy – then about 28 years old (born about 1832).  The census doesn’t indicate whether she was single, married, or widowed [6]. 

It would be premature to suggest the Ellen Murphy in 1860 and the Mary Murphy in 1870 were related, given that Murphy is one of the most common surnames in Ireland.  But because they each appear to be connected to the same family, albeit ten years apart, I cannot rule out the possibility of a familial link.    

 

Notes:

[1] 1870 U. S. census, Hartford County, Connecticut, population schedule, Hartford, p. 12, line 30, dwelling 93, family 98, Philo L. Ives household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 18 October 2013), citing FHL film 545,599, citing National Archives microfilm publication M593, roll 100.

[2] “U. S. City Directories, 1821-1989,” Connecticut, Geer’s Hartford City Directory for 1870-71, p. 170, digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 18 October 2013, entry for Philo L. Ives. 

[3] For the location of Church and Spruce Streets, see Elihu Geer, Geer’s Hartford City Directory (Connecticut), 1879, digital image, Historic MapWorks (http://www.historicmapworks.com : accessed 21 October 2013), Harford 1874, map, item US481541.

      For Lawrence Kerrigan’s residence in 1870, see 1870 U. S. census, Hartford County, Connecticut, population schedule, Hartford, p. 74, line 2, dwelling 618, family 609, Eliza Reardon household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 18 October 2013), citing FHL film 545,599, citing National Archives microfilm publication M593, roll 100.

[4] For the residence of Philo’s father Lawson Ives, see “U. S. City Directories, 1821-1989,” Connecticut, Geer’s Hartford City Directory for 1860-61, p. 150, digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 18 October 2013, entry for Lawson Ives. 

[5] “U. S. City Directories, 1821-1989,” Connecticut, Geer’s Hartford City Directory for 1870-71, p. 283, digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 18 October 2013, entry for Willis Thrall. 

[6] 1860 U. S. census, Hartford County, Connecticut, population schedule, Hartford, p. 188, line 13, dwelling 1022, family 1204, Willis Thrall household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 18 October 2013), citing FHL film 803,078, citing National Archives microfilm publication M653, roll 78.

 

Domestic Servants #2

I’ve never tried to trace a domestic servant before.  To make connections between records will probably be challenging, but the title of one of Marie Daly’s presentations gives me hope:  “Tracing Irish Domestic Servants” [1].

One challenge will be to wade through the maze of a common Irish name like Mary Murphy, but the greatest challenge will be to make connections between records with very little starting information. 

The starting information at this point is:  Mary Murphy probably lived in Hartford prior to her marriage to Lawrence Carrigan in Hartford in October of 1870 [2].

Now there were several other Mary Murphys in Hartford County, Connecticut who shared the same biographical characteristics of what I know about Annie Carrigan’s mother:  She was born most likely in Ireland between 1840 and 1850 to unknown parents; she may have died in 1876 (See my previous post There’s Something About Mary).   

And what if Mary wasn’t even living in Hartford County?  What if she wasn’t even living in Connecticut during the enumeration of the 1870 census?

Yet what if she had lived in Connecticut on census day, and what if she had lived in Hartford, where she married Lawrence Carrigan in October of 1870.  Maybe there’s a way of drawing that out.    

As indicated in a previous post, I've narrowed her down to two possible people in the census in Hartford (if she had lived in Hartford).  One was a domestic servant in the household of Philo L. Ives, and the other had an unknown occupation in the household of Maxwell Potter.

 
Notes:

[1] Presented on 23 March 2013 at the Irish Genealogy Seminar at NEHGS, jointly hosted by the Irish Ancestral Research Association (TIARA) and NEHGS. 

[2] Lawrence and Mary were married on 17 October 1870 in Hartford, Hartford County, CT at St. Patrick’s Church.   The marriage record states Mary’s residence was Hartford at the time of marriage, therefore she probably lived in Hartford for an unknown amount of time prior to 17 October 1870.  See Hartford Vital Records, Town of Hartford marriage Registrations for the year 1870, p. 241; FHL microfilm 1,313,873.

Domestic Servants--1870

The 1870 U. S. census instructions to Assistant Marshals stated this about "domestic service":

   "The organization of domestic service has not proceeded so far in this country as to render it worth while to make distinction in the character of work.  Report all as 'domestic servants.'
     Cooks, waiters, &c., in hotels and restaurants will be reported separately from domestic servants.
     The term 'house-keeper,' will be reserved for such persons as receive distinct wages or salary for the service...." [1].

So why would a young Irish woman like the Mary Murphy in the Philo L. Ives household – in the 1870 census -- choose to be a domestic servant? 

Lack of education, limited job opportunities in the area may have played a role, and she may also have been a newly arrived immigrant.  It may be worth pinning down a profile of the typical domestic servant in order to trace the Mary from the Ives household.    

I’m interested in tracking down a couple of books on the subject:

F.E. Dudden, Serving Women: Household Service in Nineteenth-Century America (Middletown, Conn., 1983) and  D.M. Katzman, Seven Days a Week: Domestic Service in Industrializing America (New York, 1978).

 
 Notes:

 
[1] “Ninth Census, United States, 1870, Instructions to Assistant Marshalls,” United States Census Bureau (http://www.census.gov : accessed 18 October 2013).