Barbera Brennan

Life

How we know this: Documented for birth, baptism, first marriage, and the 1914 household; the later Murphy identity and December 1961 death are not yet proved. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]

Where they lived

Use the place list first. The map below is optional.

The pins show approximate places. The line only joins them in time order; it does not prove the route travelled. 2 of the places listed above are recorded only as a county or country, so they are not pinned. Cemetery and burial places have red pins.

Historical context

These background articles explain the places, work, and events in this entry.

What we still don't know

• What details appear on the 1904 marriage return, ledger 24, page 141?
• Who was Barbara's reported second husband Murphy, and when did they marry?
• Can a death certificate or obituary prove that the Barbara Murphy indexed in December 1961 was this Barbara?
• [THE NEXT MOVE, AND IT IS FREE — 1950 CENSUS, ED 13-250] South Belmar borough is a single enumeration district in 1950: ED 13-250, 82 sheets. This archive has already searched the 1950 census of Belmar and South Belmar by name and correctly found nothing — she was enumerated at Bayonne. This is a search by ADDRESS, for the landlord. Census day was 1 April 1950, out of season, so whoever is written at 701 and 701½ Twentyfirst Avenue is not the summer tenant: it is the owner, or a year-round tenant who could name the owner. NARA serves the district metadata to scripts and the images to nobody — 405 to GET and 403 to POST — so it needs a browser. In `research/WORK_ORDER_browser.md`. Finding 157.
• [THE STREET NAME IS CONFIRMED AS CONTEMPORARY, NOT ANTIQUE] Finding 155 read "F" as Main Street from two local histories, both describing the 1870s-1900s — which left the worry that the family was repeating a name obsolete for fifty years. The United States Census Bureau was still using it in 1950. The enumeration-district boundaries for Belmar borough, written for the census of 1 April 1950, run "…Borough limits; F St.; Borough limits". The testimony uses the street name of its own moment. Finding 157.
• [NEGATIVE, DOCUMENTED — THE SANBORN MAPS ARE NOT ONLINE] The Library of Congress holds the two volumes that would show this corner: `sanborn05568_010` (1930, Vol. 5) and `sanborn05568_017` (1950, Vol. 5, dated 1930 – Aug 1950, 79 sheets), both covering Belmar and South Belmar by name. Neither is digitised — `digitized: false`, no images. The two volumes that are digitised are 1890 and 1905 and too early to help. The 1950 volume would show whether 701½ stood separately from 701. Routes left: the LoC Geography & Map Division in person, or ProQuest's Sanborn subscription, which many New Jersey libraries provide free with a library card. Finding 157.
• [NEGATIVE, CONTROLLED — SHE OWNED NO MONMOUTH COUNTY LAND, UNDER EITHER NAME] The deed search this archive had been planning has now been run, in an index that reaches further back than anyone here realised: Monmouth County OPRS indexes deeds by decade to 1920, including 1940-1949. MURPHY, BARBARA returns nothing across 1920-1969, against a control in which the surname alone fills the 100-row cap. That confirms the family's word that the Belmar house was a rental — from the record side rather than from testimony. One BRENNAN, BARBARA exists (Wall Township, 1 April 1949, DB-2204/450) and is rejected: she bought jointly with a Kenneth M. Brennan, which is what a husband looks like; our Barbara had been Murphy for thirty-three years by then; Wall Township is the wrong municipality; and the family says she rented. Recorded as examined and rejected. Finding 156.
• [THE CANDIDATE HOUSES, AND ONE PAIR STANDS OUT] The State's MOD-IV parcel data returns nineteen parcels within sixty metres of the 21st-and-Main corner, all of them in Lake Como — an independent confirmation of the municipality from the tax roll rather than a map. Filtering to what stood by 1948 leaves 701 and 701½ Twentyfirst Avenue (block 34, lots 27 and 28, both built about 1940), 2107 and 2117 Main Street, and 2005, 2007 and 2019 Main Street. The half-numbered pair is the one to look at first: two dwellings on one corner on the first lots off Main Street, and a half-number is what a rented second unit or rear cottage is called. Caveat: MOD-IV build years are rounded — they cluster on 1930, 1940, 1950 — so 1940 means about 1940. Finding 156.
• [WHAT STANDS IN THE WAY IS NUMBERING, NOT ACCESS] The 1940s deed index is open and free, but it records old South Belmar lot numbers, and the borough's lots were renumbered. Bridging that needs an old tax map, or the recital in whichever 1970s-80s deed first carries the modern block and lot. And there is a genuine hole: no series covers 1950-1969. The named long-tenure owners to chain from are Marron (2019 Main), Babakian (2007 Main), Farina (2107 Main), Drury (701½) and Cottrell (2005 Main) — landlord candidates, not relatives, and nobody has been created. Finding 156.
• [THE BELMAR SEARCH WAS AIMED AT THE WRONG THING, AND NOW AT THE WRONG TOWN] It was a rental at 21st and F — family testimony, 21 August 2026. Two corrections follow. First: drop the deed search in her name. A tenant is on no deed, so looking for Murphy or Brennan in the Monmouth County grantee index would have produced a false negative. What a deed can give is the landlord — the owner of that corner in 1947-1952 — which is a different and still-useful target. Second: it is not Belmar. 'F' is Main Street (Belmar Historical Society), and 21st Avenue is in Lake Como, called SOUTH BELMAR until 2005 — Belmar's own avenues stop at 20th. South Belmar's tax rolls and clerk are the right records, not Belmar's. Finding 155.
• [AND IT EXPLAINS THE CENSUS SILENCE TWICE OVER] The 1950 census of Belmar was searched and empty, and that is now over-determined: census day was 1 April 1950, before the season, and a summer tenant is enumerated at her winter address — which was Bayonne, where the 1950 census does find her and where she died in December 1961. No census will ever show this house, and the negative should not be re-run. Finding 155.
• [ORDER THIS — IT MAY CARRY WILLIAM MURPHY'S DEATH DATE] New Jersey death certificate, state file 55962, December 1961. A New Jersey death certificate of 1961 names the deceased's father and mother, gives the informant and their relationship, and states marital status. If it records her as a widow, that is independent confirmation of what this archive has only inferred; the informant will most likely be one of her sons. Her second husband's death date remains unknown and unfindable in the index — there is no New Jersey death index for 1930–1948 — so this certificate and the Holy Cross records are the two routes left. Finding 154.
• [ANSWERED, 21 August 2026] She died at Bayonne, not Belmar. Place of death and place of residence on her 1961 index row are the same code, 09052 = Bayonne, decoded against Malachy J. Leahy's separately documented 1960 Bayonne death. The Belmar house was a summer house and never her residence of record — the 1950 census implied it and this confirms it eleven years later. It also means no Belmar record will ever carry her death, and the Monmouth County deed search should stay a deed search. Finding 154.
• [THE BELMAR HOUSE — THE SEARCH NAME WAS WRONG] The Monmouth County deed index was to be searched under Brennan, Leahey and Murphy, with the note that the second husband "has never been identified". He has now: William Murphy, married 1916. Search the deeds under William Murphy and Barbara Murphy first. The house was used in summers about 1947–1952, and he was dead by April 1950, so a deed could stand in either name — or pass from his estate to hers.
• [THE BELMAR HOUSE — AND WHY NO CENSUS WILL EVER SHOW IT] Andrew Leahey recalls that his father, born 1947, stayed with this woman at a house in Belmar in the summers before he started school, so about 1947–1952. The 1950 census falls inside that window and it settles the shape of the thing: on 10 April 1950 she was living at Bayonne, head of her own household in Enumeration District 23-102. So Belmar was a summer house, not her home — and a census records usual residence, which is precisely why searching Belmar for her found nothing. Searched and confirmed empty: the 1950 census of Belmar has no Barbara of her age and no Leahey at all; the 1940 census of Belmar and South Belmar has one Barbara of the right age, Barbara Kraemer, born in New York, who is not her. So the census route is closed by evidence, not by failure, and the answer lies in property records. In order of promise: the Monmouth County Clerk's deed index, searched under Brennan, Leahey and Murphy — and note the deed may be in the name of her second husband, who has still not been identified; her 1961 death record or obituary; and Belmar's municipal tax rolls for the late 1940s.
• Obtain the 1904 marriage return (ledger 24, page 141) for residences and parents; identify and document the reported second husband Murphy; obtain Barbara Murphy’s 1961 death certificate or obituary before accepting the state-index row as hers.
• Identify the Catherine/Cath. Lavelle named in the Brennan baptismal material: the existing 1894 Catherine profile cannot be this person’s mother and was detached pending resolution of the date or identity conflation.
• [RESOLVED ENOUGH TO ACT ON — JAMES FRANCIS LEAHEY IS HERE NOW] Find a Grave listed a son James Francis Leahey, 1911–1983, whom this archive did not hold. Searching Holy Cross by cemetery rather than by name settled it: he is buried in her own grave, Blk-64 Sec-A Gr-718 — she in 1A, John Joseph in 2A, James in 2B. He has been added, flagged compiled. The William Leahey this archive already held has not been touched: he came from the family tree with no sources, no William Leahey is buried at Holy Cross, and he and James may well be one man under two given names. That is recorded on both pages and left for a census to settle.

References

1. [1] baptismBack to citation 1a Back to citation 1b Back to citation 1c
2. [2] Index imageBack to citation 2a Back to citation 2b
3. [3] viewerBack to citation 3
4. [4] Dempsey 1914–1918Back to citation 4a Back to citation 4b
5. [5] Barbara Leahey Murphy memorialBack to citation 5
6. [6] 1961 H–M index imageBack to citation 6a Back to citation 6b
7. [7] viewerBack to citation 7
8. [8] Find a Grave memorial 99127677 and photographed Murphy monumentBack to citation 8a Back to citation 8b
9. [9] Barbara Murphy household, 1950 United States census, Bayonne, Hudson County, New JerseyBack to citation 9a Back to citation 9b
10. [10] New Jersey Marriage Index, Brides, 1915–1919, A–B — Brennan, BarbaraBack to citation 10a Back to citation 10b
11. [11] Find a Grave memorial 99127677 — Barbara Brennan Leahey Murphy (1886–1961), Holy Cross CemeteryBack to citation 11a Back to citation 11b
12. [12] Holy Cross Cemetery, North Arlington — Leahey burials, searched by cemeteryBack to citation 12
13. [13] St. Mary Star of the Sea, Bayonne — baptism of Catherine Brennan, 7 October 1888Back to citation 13
14. [14] New Jersey Death Index 1961, surnames H-M — page 306, read from the scanBack to citation 14a Back to citation 14b
15. [15] New Jersey Death Index 1960, surnames H-N — page 170, the anchor that decodes the place columnBack to citation 15
16. [16] Family testimony: the Belmar summer house was a rental at 21st and FBack to citation 16a Back to citation 16b
17. [17] Belmar Historical Society & Museum — Downtown: F Street is now Main StreetBack to citation 17
18. [18] OpenStreetMap — 21st Avenue and Main Street, Lake Como, Monmouth CountyBack to citation 18
19. [19] Monmouth County Open Public Records Search (OPRS) — deed index 1920-1969, searched under Murphy and BrennanBack to citation 19
20. [20] New Jersey MOD-IV parcel layer — the corner of 21st Avenue and Main Street, Lake ComoBack to citation 20
21. [21] 1950 census enumeration-district descriptions, Monmouth County, New Jersey — National ArchivesBack to citation 21
22. [22] Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, New Jersey Coast Vol. 5 (1930 and 1950) — catalogued, not digitisedBack to citation 22

See also

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