Curphey History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

During the 19th century thousands of impoverished Irish families made the long journey to British North America and the United States. These people were leaving a land that had become beset with poverty, lack of opportunity, and hunger. In North America, they hoped to find land, work, and political and religious freedoms. Although the majority of the immigrants that survived the long sea passage did make these discoveries, it was not without much perseverance and hard work: by the mid-19th century land suitable for agriculture was short supply, especially in British North America, in the east; the work available was generally low paying and physically taxing construction or factory work; and the English stereotypes concerning the Irish, although less frequent and vehement, were, nevertheless, present in the land of freedom, liberty, and equality for all men. The largest influx of Irish settlers occurred with Great Potato Famine during the late 1840s. Research into passenger and immigration lists has brought forth evidence of the early members of the Curphey family in North America:

Curphey Settlers in United States in the 18th Century

• Thomas Curphey, who arrived in America in 1722-1723 1

• Theodore Joscelyn Curphey (1897-1986), American coroner, Chief Medical Examiner of Nassau County (1937-1957), Los Angeles County Coroner (1957-1967)
• Major Aldington George Curphey MBE, Jamaican President of the Legislative Council of Jamaica (1952-1958)
• Ian Curphey, New Zealand field leader of M.G. Laird's New Zealand Antarctic Research Program geological party (1974–1975), eponym of The Curphey Peaks, Victoria Land, Antarctica
• Captain William George Sellar Curphey MC (1895-1917), Scottish World War I flying ace credited with six aerial victories; he died in a field hospital on 14 May 1917 from burns he suffered when his plane was shot down the previous day