Person in this family
William Murphy
This entry is about William Murphy (Dates not recorded). For other family members with the same first and family name, see William Murphy (Born about 1918; death not recorded).
Dates not recorded
William Murphy was the second husband of Barbara Brennan, and until 11 August 2026 this archive did not know his name. He married her in New Jersey in 1916, when she was a widow of two years with four small Leahey children, and they had two children of their own, Marian and William. He was dead by April 1950, when the census found Barbara keeping her own house at Bayonne, described as a widow with his two grown children at home. Nothing else about him is documented yet — no birth, no death, no occupation, no parents. The New Jersey marriage return, file number 25547, would give all of it.
Proved by a record
William Murphy was the second husband of Barbara Brennan, and until 11 August 2026 this archive did not know his name. He married her in New Jersey in 1916, when she was a widow of two years with four small Leahey children, and they had two children of their own, Marian and William. He was dead by April 1950, when the census found Barbara keeping her own house at Bayonne, described as a widow with his two grown children at home. Nothing else about him is documented yet — no birth, no death, no occupation, no parents. The New Jersey marriage return, file number 25547, would give all of it.
How is this person related?
Andrew John Leahey’s great-grandparent's spouse (by marriage)
Gina D. Cacace’s connected in this tree, but not by a line this tool can name
Abigail Ann Leahey’s great-great-grandparent's spouse (by marriage)
Marie C. Fitzgerald’s connected in this tree, but not by a line this tool can name
Kevin Leahey’s grandparent's spouse (by marriage)
Worked out from the recorded parents and marriages. No sex is recorded for anyone in this archive, so the wording stays neutral.
How this person is related to Andrew:
William Murphy is the spouse of your great-grandparent.
Life
A written life story has not been added for this person yet.
References for this account: [1]
Family
Spouse
Children
See this family in the family treeWhere they lived
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Places listed on this page
- Bayonne, Hudson County, New Jersey
- New Jersey
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The pins show approximate places. The line only joins them in time order; it does not prove the route travelled. 1 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.
Timeline
Married Barbara Brennan in New Jersey
The New Jersey marriage index for 1915–1919 indexes brides under their maiden name, which is why a widow remarrying appears as Brennan and not Leahey — and is why this entry went unfound while the archive searched under Leahey. The row gives file number 25547 and the year 16. He is the only William Murphy paired with the only Barbara Brennan in the whole five-year index: a scan of all 401 pages of the A–B volume found exactly one row naming both. [1]
Proved by a record
What the records say
1 record transcribed.
Record exhibit
New Jersey Marriage Index, Brides, 1915–1919, A–B — Brennan, Barbara
An index is a list that points to where the full record can be found.
Proved by a record
Full verbatim transcription — reproduced in full.
Column headings: MAIDEN NAME OF WIFE (last, first) | NAME OF HUSBAND (last, first) | FILE NO. | YEAR OF MARRIAGE. The row reads Brennan, Barbara; Murphy, William; file number 25547; year 16 (1916).
Historical context
These background articles explain the places, work, and events in this entry.
What we still don't know
- [HOW HE WAS FOUND, AND WHY IT TOOK SO LONG] The archive had looked for this man in censuses and in a deed index. He was in a name index all along, filed under a surname nobody thought to try. The lesson is the column heading: the New Jersey bride index says MAIDEN NAME OF WIFE, so a widow's second marriage is filed under her first surname, not the one she was using.
- [NO DEATH RECORD — HE IS TREATED AS DECEASED ON THE CENSUS, NOT ON AGE ALONE] The 1950 census records Barbara as head of her own household and a widow, so he was dead by 10 April 1950. That is the only evidence of his death; no date, place or burial is known. Holy Cross Cemetery, where Barbara lies in Blk-64 Sec-A Gr-718 1A, holds at least five William Murphys who died before 1950 — including one in April 1947 and one in October 1945 — and Find a Grave records no plot for any of them, so none can be matched to hers from the site. The cemetery office could settle it from the interment card for her grave.
- [NEXT, AND IT COSTS MONEY] New Jersey marriage return, 1916, file no. 25547. The certificate names both parties' parents, ages, birthplaces, occupations and residences — which would give this man a father and a mother in one document, and confirm Barbara's own parents at the same time. See BLOCKED_AND_PAID.md.