If YOU are "of a vintage like my own", you might remember a book called, "The Search for Bridey Murphy", which was VERY popular in the 1950's. In the book, a woman, under hypnosis, told all about her "previous life" as "Bridey Murphy", an Irish woman of the 1800's. The author documented in great detail his attempt to prove that "Bridey" really existed.
My OWN version, "The Search for LESTER Murphy", is a bit different. I KNOW Lester existed - we were both photographed at my grand-parent's (Rob POHL and Martha WESSLING) 50th Wedding Anniversary party in 1958. In the pictures, Lester is shown talking to my Momma's Uncle Will WESSLING - I'm seated at a picnic table, looking bored, as only a 19 year-old can look at a family gathering she didn't really want to go to in the first place.
What are the "hard facts" of this "case"? Lester F MURPHY was born in December 1889 in Boston MA, the oldest child of Catherine Elizabeth DORR and Melville Eugene MURPHY. Melville MURPHY is described in several church records as "a non-Catholic" and "from Medford".
Lester had at least two younger brothers, - Eugene Joseph and John Joseph.
The 1935 Boston City Directory lists Lester as an "investigator" at 24 School Street, room 509, living with his father at 22 Brookview in Dorchester, and mentions a wife named "Florence M".
Researching ANYONE named "MURPHY" is NOT an easy task, and tracking "MURPHY"s in BOSTON is next to impossible. I could find no mention of Lester in the SSDI, so, I'm assuming he died before, say, 1963. There is no sidenote to his Baptism record (at Holy Trinity Church) telling where and when his marriage to "Florence" occurred. Family Lore says that Cousin Lester lived either on "the South Shore" or "down by the Cape", and MAY have been involved in Real Estate.
If I lived near Boston, I could search for a marriage record and a death record in the Mass State Archives - but that's not the case. What would the "real" Miss Marple do NEXT???
Marge Reid--mvreid@eskimo.com
This page was updated 4 January 1999.
copyright © 1997, 1998, 1999 - Margaret V Reid