Five Generations Ago
Our ancestors five generations ago were Harry William Murphy and Margaret Mary (McWilliams) Murphy. This is an exceedingly brief story of their lives. We heard they met on the Boblo boat when he was a sailor on leave in Detroit before World War I. He hailed from St. Louis, MO, but Detroit would become his home after the war, as he married Miss McWilliams. They would eventually become known as “Gramma and Grampa Murphy.” Even more so, it is the story of their children’s lives, those who are the parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, great-great-grandparents, aunts, and uncles (and so on) of those of you here today, June 24, 2023, to celebrate this distinctly Irish but also undeniably All American family.
Dec. Feb. 15, 1961
(Left) Harry William Murphy’s Navy Photo from World War I
(Right) Margaret Mary McWilliams Murphy in about 1920. Volunteer Red Cross driver WWI.
We don’t know a lot about their early lives.
Dec. June 6, 1966
Margaret in swimsuit at Cherry Beach, St. Clair……1920
Harry Sr holding little Margaret with Harry Joe and Ethel — in St. Clair, 1928
Margaret with son Harry Joe
He was an Air Force pilot in WWII.
Grampa with Air Force pilot (son Harry Joe) and Gramma’s father, George McWilliams, Sr.
Gramma & Grampa in the 40’s
Grampa, 1944
Gramma & Grampa on the links in St. Clair. Gramma rockin’ the aviators.
Gramma and Grampa in St. Clair around 1950
These are their children.
Standing in back row: Ethel (Anderson), George McWilliams (Mickey), Margaret (Klemmer), and Harry Joseph (Harry Joe).
Seated in front: Harry William Murphy (Grampa), Eileen (Koenig), and Margaret Mary (Gramma).
The children of the five in this photo are now the oldest living generation of the Murphy family. That would be us: your moms and dads, aunts and uncles, grammas and grampas. Many of you can add “great” before those designations!
The family in the photo above was the first Murphy family to be born in the U.S. Prior to them, our ancestors were born in Ireland. We know little of the Murphy history in Ireland. Grampa’s father, Harry Holland Murphy, was only four and a half years old when he reached this country in around 1881. We do not know what happened to the rest of his family, but we do know he was raised by an Aunt in St. Louis. He married, had a family, and lived the rest of his life there.
Daughter Patricia, born September 16, 1926, deceased December 14, 1927. She died from meningitis.
Grampa and Eileen at the 1956 Murphy Reunion
The photos below are of the Murphy children in their younger years.
Click on each name to see how they each created their own families.
(Harry Joe)
B. April 20, 1921
D. Sept. 30, 1974
(Klemmer)
B. Jan. 24, 1928
D. May 13, 2001
The Murphy's of Michigan 