{"id":6745,"date":"2017-12-13T11:52:15","date_gmt":"2017-12-13T19:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blackenedroots.com\/blog\/?p=6745"},"modified":"2020-01-19T13:06:54","modified_gmt":"2020-01-19T21:06:54","slug":"george-faulkner-mcmurry-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blackenedroots.com\/blog\/george-faulkner-mcmurry-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"George Faulkner McMurry, part I"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Today’s post will be my first look into the life story of George Faulkner McMurry, one of the two brothers adopted by James Miller McMurry and his wife Grace Aitken. My cousin Crystal turned me on to this story, and if you haven’t read her post on George, you should go read it now<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Crystal learned that George and his brother Douglas survived a shipwreck that killed their parents. The brothers were then adopted by James and Grace McMurry in Port Townsend, Washington. She also learned that George was married briefly, and that he was murdered in San Francisco in June, 1945. All tantalizing stuff!<\/p>\n

In addition to this story having a lot to recommend it on its own, I suspect that the story of George and his brother may shed light on Grace Aitken’s family in New York, and that it may help explain why widower James McMurry moved in his later years to Sutter County, California, where he apparently had no family.<\/p>\n

This won’t be a full biography of George, but rather an exploration of a few documents I’ve recently found that advance our understanding of George a bit. The first document I’d like to present is George Faulker McMurry’s Petition for Naturalization and its accompanying documentation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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It was interesting just discovering that this Petition for Naturalization exists, as George had previously stated that he was a U.S. citizen who had been born in New York City.<\/p>\n

From his Petition for Naturalization, we finally learn the truth: George Faulkner McMurry was born on September 14, 1899, on the island of Cura\u00e7ao in the Dutch West Indies. And he claimed that his full name at birth was George Talbot Faulkner (although as I’ll show below, this wasn’t completely accurate). He also stated that he was a British citizen by virtue of the nationality of his father’s mother.<\/p>\n

George was 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighed 160 pounds, had blue eyes and brown hair, and had tattoos on both arms.<\/p>\n

He also stated that he had gotten married to Fay O’Connor of Colorado on March 5, 1928, in San Francisco, California, but that they had since divorced.<\/p>\n

According to the attached Form N-400, “Supplement Re Service On American Ships,” between May, 1918, and November 1943, George worked on at least 15 American ships that were over 20 tons, serving on at least 18 voyages on these ships, for a total of 7 years, 5 months, and 20 days at sea over that 25-year period. He may have been at sea even longer if he worked on any smaller ships or non-American ships.<\/p>\n

George’s Petition for Naturalization was dated February 25, 1944. Why did he seek formal naturalization when he was nearly 45 years old, and not earlier? I suspect it had to do with World War II and an increased scrutiny being put on the citizenship of those serving on ocean-going vessels, but this is just a hunch.<\/p>\n

According to the Petition for Naturalization, George emigrated to the United States in May, 1900, when he was only 8 months old. The ship he was on was the “G.B. Lockhart.” This is the ship that would later sink with George and his family aboard, taking the lives of his parents.<\/p>\n

Now that we know that George was born in what was then called The Colony of Cura\u00e7ao and Dependencies, a Dutch colony from 1845 to 1936, we can turn to the wonderfully organized, accessible, free, and mostly bilingual archives of the Netherlands, wiewaswie.nl<\/a>. Sure enough, since George was born on Dutch soil, the Dutch have a record of his birth. And not just one record, but two records\u2014one for when he was born with both of his parents’ names, and one registered 3\u00bd months after his birth with just his father’s name and a statement that the father is aged over 50 years.<\/p>\n

First birth record for George (click here for full record):<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Child’s name<\/strong><\/td>\nDe George Talbot Faulkner<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Birth date<\/strong><\/td>\nSeptember 14, 1899<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Birth place<\/strong><\/td>\nWillemstad<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Father<\/strong><\/td>\nRupert de George Faulkner<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mother<\/strong><\/td>\nChrissie Harlan Jordan<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Note<\/strong><\/td>\n“Kind werd op 01-05-1900 (Stadsdistrict) erkend door zijn moeder en door Rupert De George Faulkner” (Child was recognized on 1 May 1900 (City District) by his mother and by Rupert De George Faulkner)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Note that George’s full first name is De George, his father’s middle name.<\/p>\n

Second birth record for George (click here for full record):<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Child’s name<\/strong><\/td>\nDe George Talbot Faulkner<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Birth date<\/strong><\/td>\nSeptember 14, 1899<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Birth place<\/strong><\/td>\nWillemstad<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Father<\/strong><\/td>\nRupert de George Faulkner<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mother<\/strong><\/td>\nNN (no name given ?)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Note<\/strong><\/td>\n“Leeftijd vader is 50” (Aged father is 50)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Willemstad<\/a> is the capital of Cura\u00e7ao, a charming Old-World-esque city that was founded in 1634.<\/p>\n

The next document I found was George’s Application for Seaman’s Certificate of American Citizenship or Intention Papers, dated December 12, 1918, when George was 19 years old and just beginning his career as a mariner. The first thing you’ll notice about this application is that it contains two copies of a photo of a 19-year-old George:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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On this application, George claims to have been born in New York City, and the Deputy Collector of Customs for Washington certifies that he has seen proof of George’s citizenship. While I have no evidence of this, I suspect that the Deputy saw a white, blue-eyed boy with an American accent and figured there was no cause to suspect that he was anything other than the U.S. citizen he claimed to be. It’s also possible that George didn’t know at this point that he was adopted, as he claimed his father’s birthplace was Illinois, which is actually the birthplace of his adopted father, James Miller McMurry. I don’t believe that was the case, however, as the 1910 census shows George and his brother Douglas living with James and Grace McMurry in Port Townsend, and has both George and his brother clearly marked as adopted sons (see detail image below). I find it hard to believe that they would freely disclose this to the census taker if they were trying to keep it secret from their sons.<\/p>\n

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Finally, from this application, we learn that one of George’s tattoos was an anchor on his right forearm.<\/p>\n

I also found the 1930 census for George, which catches him living with his wife, Fay O’Connor McMurry, and her 15-year-old son John O’Connor (lines 33\u201335):<\/p>\n

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The G. B. Lockhart<\/h1>\n

I’d like to turn now to the ship that took the lives of George’s parents. According to page 188<\/a> of the Reports of the Harbour Commissioners for Montreal, Quebec, Three Rivers, Toronto, North Sydney, Pictou and Belleville: Report of pilotage authorities\u2014Reports of port wardens, shipping-masters and of wrecks and casualties,<\/em> the G.B. Lockhart<\/em> was a 16-year-old wooden-rigged sailing ship registered in Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada, when it was wrecked on May 31, 1906:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Lloyd’s Register of Shipping, Volume 1, has additional information of the G.B. Lockhart (see line 4, below), including that the G.B. Lockhart was a 305-ton, 120 foot 8 inch vessel that was sailing under a British flag. And most importantly, the captain of the ship was listed as “R. de G. Faulkner.”<\/p>\n

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I haven’t been able to find any accounts of the wreck of the G. B. Lockhart<\/em> so far, but I did find this one brief mention in the Report on the Trade and Commerce of Cura\u00e7oa for the Years 1905\u201306<\/em><\/a> by British Consul Jacob Jesurun (1907, pages 4\u20135):<\/p>\n

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Thanks to the Connecticut Digital Archive<\/a> of the University of Connecticut, we have this gloriously large image of the G. B. Lockhart<\/em> taken during a stop it made in New Haven, Connecticut:<\/p>\n

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The Connecticut Digital Archive’s caption for this print is: “Starboard view of the brigantine G. B. Lockhart<\/em> at Canal Dock, New Haven, taken from Long Wharf. Buildings and smokestacks spewing smoke can be seen in the background.”<\/p>\n

The shipwreck that killed George’s parents<\/h1>\n

The British Consulate in Cura\u00e7ao recorded the deaths of George’s parents. George’s father Rupert is listed on line 5 of page 2:<\/p>\n

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George’s mother Chrissie is listed on line 1 of page 3:<\/p>\n

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A few interesting things to note:<\/p>\n