I knew Nora Craig was John J Murphy's mother and that she had died just after his birth according to letters from an aunt of John's. I knew he was born in Woodford, Co Cork, who his parents were and that his father was constable from his birth record, the original which I have. Nora Craig's parentage, which was totally unknown, came to me only after searching the RIC records and making note of the basic information mentioned as to "wife's nativity" in the column. There was "Tipp N" written for the first marriage and Kerry written for the second marriage. I had known more of the second wife and that she was truly from Co Kerry.
After transcribing the record, it took some reminding that I should go look for her birth record, which now was possible because of the entry describing North Tipperary as her place of birth.
I used the site: http://ifhf.brsgenealogy.com/map.php to locate a birth record for Nora Craig. There is a map where you can click on the county of choice and search records for free. Once finding a record of interest, you can purchase right there on the spot and print out the information.
Nora, born 1863 (that part I knew from her death record located through this same site in Woodford Co Cork), turned out to be baptized as Hanora; there were listed her parents also; I further searched this same site for possible marriage record, which I found, then searched birth records for her parents and since there were no conflicting names and dates, it was not difficult to pin them down, using location as a backup criteria.
I must say that searching Murphy surname is much more difficult. In this case the names were not great in number and records were simpler to sort.
I still must go locate her father's record in the RIC files. Hopefully, if found, I can verify him and what I have learned here.
