Sunday, May 14, 2006
Digging Up My New York Roots
This woman is my my great-great-great grandmother. Her maiden name was Catherine Elizabeth Collier and she was born in Ireland in December 1839. She came to New York in the late 1850s and married my great-great-great grandfather, Michael Murray, in about 1864:
During and following the Civil War, the Murrays profited as a cotton brokerage - importing and selling cotton from the southern US - during a time when that industry suffered due to the conflict. According to the 1869 New York directory, the Murray's cotton brokerage was located at 110 South Street that year, which is actually right around the corner from where I work. The other day, I went there with a camera. The building is still there and stinks of fish because it was most recently used as part of the Fulton Street Fish Market for decades. The market moved uptown to the Bronx recently, but the neighborhood still smells. Here is a picture of 110 South Street - it's the house in the middle:
In 1869, Catherine Murray lived at 30 Henry Street with her husband and three daughters, Mary - my great great grandmother, Margaret and Katherine. I walked up to Henry Street - which is lower than the area known as the Lower East Side - not knowing what I'd find. Today Henry Street is actually in the southern most part of Chinatown. It's amazing. On one side of the Brooklyn Bridge, it's city government buildings and on the other side, it's all in Chinese. And so, today Catherine's home is 'Henry Import & Export Kitchen Equipment and Supplies':
Finally I went to 42 Water Street. This is the second location of the cotton brokerage - where it was located in 1890. It's also right around the corner from my work. Today, it's filled with lower Manhattan workers ordering lunch. That's right. The former cotton brokerage is now the 'All American Deli', and probably nobody knows what used to go on there:
And that concluded my tour of my family's old stomping grounds. I only had one 'feeling' during the trip. While I was at 110 South Street I had this sort of flash of what the place might of looked like. In my imagination for that nanosecond, it was night, there was no stink of fish in the air, and there were lights on in the building and people, dressed in black, 19th century clothing, were at work doing things on the first floor. And there was a little older lady seated near the door. And then my portal to the last century was gone. And I went forward on my way through lower Manhattan.
During and following the Civil War, the Murrays profited as a cotton brokerage - importing and selling cotton from the southern US - during a time when that industry suffered due to the conflict. According to the 1869 New York directory, the Murray's cotton brokerage was located at 110 South Street that year, which is actually right around the corner from where I work. The other day, I went there with a camera. The building is still there and stinks of fish because it was most recently used as part of the Fulton Street Fish Market for decades. The market moved uptown to the Bronx recently, but the neighborhood still smells. Here is a picture of 110 South Street - it's the house in the middle:
In 1869, Catherine Murray lived at 30 Henry Street with her husband and three daughters, Mary - my great great grandmother, Margaret and Katherine. I walked up to Henry Street - which is lower than the area known as the Lower East Side - not knowing what I'd find. Today Henry Street is actually in the southern most part of Chinatown. It's amazing. On one side of the Brooklyn Bridge, it's city government buildings and on the other side, it's all in Chinese. And so, today Catherine's home is 'Henry Import & Export Kitchen Equipment and Supplies':
Finally I went to 42 Water Street. This is the second location of the cotton brokerage - where it was located in 1890. It's also right around the corner from my work. Today, it's filled with lower Manhattan workers ordering lunch. That's right. The former cotton brokerage is now the 'All American Deli', and probably nobody knows what used to go on there:
And that concluded my tour of my family's old stomping grounds. I only had one 'feeling' during the trip. While I was at 110 South Street I had this sort of flash of what the place might of looked like. In my imagination for that nanosecond, it was night, there was no stink of fish in the air, and there were lights on in the building and people, dressed in black, 19th century clothing, were at work doing things on the first floor. And there was a little older lady seated near the door. And then my portal to the last century was gone. And I went forward on my way through lower Manhattan.
# posted by Giustino : 7:54 PM
