If you’ve read through Part 1 and Part 2, I’m sure you’re wondering what happened next. At least, I hope you are… When I saw the burial record for Margaret Murphy with Emma A. Shaw as the person who’d purchased the plot, I couldn’t contain my excitement. But I would have to over the next 5 days, as we traveled… Read More
If you started at Part 1, the story continues here! After being told by one genealogical research company that the prognosis for finding my great-great-grandmother, Emma Anna (Murphy) (Reagan) Shaw, was “poor,” I thought maybe they were right. However, I had Research Consultation time I had banked with the New England Historic Genealogical Society (American Ancestors), because for the past… Read More
After 26 years of wondering and guessing, digging and hypothesizing, flailing and sometimes giving up, it happened. When I originally posted “2019: The Year I Find Emma” on January 4, 2019, my entire focus was on DNA. Would you believe that, after all these years, DNA was not what led me to answers? Instead, it was 3 of our most-often… Read More