Yea Anthony!

My one goal for this journey has been to find the origins of Anthony Murray – my furthest back Murray ancestor.  His death record states he was born in “Dorchester”.  Most on Ancestry.com list his birthplace as Dorchester, MA.  Kind of makes sense because he married Abigail Holbrook in Wellfleet, MA, but I just couldn’t buy that as his place or origin.  Other than Anthony, zero Murrays lived in the Boston area in the 1770s.  It just didn’t make sense to me that someone might be born in an area and no parents or siblings would be on record.  Dorchester, Maryland, on the other hand, had a lot of Murrays, so I suspected he was born in MD.

Well, today was my lucky day!!  Dorchester, Maryland has been confirmed!! I visited the Androscoggin historical society, and in their Murray records was a document that stated Anthony’s descendants probably were responsible for erroneously listing his birth place as MA.  On his death certificate (which I have yet to see), it is listed as MD.  Yea!!  A second source is the interview notes made at the time Anthony moved to Maine.  Apparently, ME interviewed all incoming residents, and in Anthony’s record, it clearly states Anthony came from Dorchester, MD.  I knew it!!!

While driving through the countryside here in Maine is absolutely stunning, arriving in the city today made me quite anxious because I had to find parking for the trailer.  I arrived an hour early to my appointment suspecting I’d have some trouble finding a spot.  Luckily, I was able to find space on a side road across the street from an auto repair place.  I asked the owner if it was safe to park there, and while he did say yes, he also offered to have me park on his property instead of the street.  He was amazingly kind.  I love Maine.

At the historical society, I was given the name of a “Murray-McKenney Cemetery – where a few townspeople were buried.  On a long shot, I decided to head over there.  It was located at the end of a small road – which turned into a dirt road and indicated “dead end”. I checked the aerial view of the dead end to see if there was a place where I could turn around the trailer, and it appeared to be ok, so down I went.  Crazy, I know.  I got to the end, kind of parked my truck and trailer, got out, walked around a “Private Property/No Trespassing” sign and walked up a tree-lined path.  Seemed like a long walk, but sure enough, at the top of the hill was an old small cemetery.  However, if there were any Murrays buried there, no headstones marked their graves.  The vintage of the cemetery was right, but no luck on finding my relatives.  Backed up just fine and made my way south into Massachusetts.

I’m now in the Boston area.  The drive south totally sucked.  Why would Google Maps route me through the center of Boston in the height of work-day traffic?  Of course, the suggested route changed at the last second – when there was NO WAY I could change lanes, and I went 10 miles out of my way to get back to where I should have turned off in the first place.  Aargh. 

That detour caused me to arrive at my destination after dark – the second time I’ve had to back up the beast without help and without light.  I’m getting better at backing the trailer up, but doing it in the dark – not fun.

I’m here three nights . . . no water connection, and no wifi.  Hopefullly, I can use my hotspot to send out my posts, but photos?  Not so sure.  I had planned to drive back into Boston tomorrow to do some research in the library, but I’m tired and could use a bit of a break.  Plus, with my new Anthony Murray revelation, there’s not likely to be much to discover in Boston.  I’m in a state park, so I may just do some nice hiking.

10/11/2024