My ancestor, Michael or Mike Howard, emigrated from Ireland to the United States at about the age of 20 in about 1860. The first record we can find of his presence in the U.S. is from a marriage record in Iowa in 1878. He is known to have worked for the railroad helping to construct a line from the east through Iowa. We cannot find any record that states any details about his birth except that he was born in Ireland in about 1839 to 1841. We do not know the names of parents or siblings. There are numerous U.S. immigration records bearing the name of Michael Howard at about the expected year, but nothing that definitely identifies the person as the same one we are looking for. Are there ways of determining more information like what county he may have lived in?
Henry Simpson
Wednesday 3rd Jan 2024, 03:45PMMessage Board Replies
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Henry,
Have you found Michael's death record? These sometimes include parents' names and/or birthplace in Ireland.
How about his obituary/gravestone?
Sometimes probate records refer to relatives in a certain county in Ireland.
Have you looked at all the census records he appears in to see if any relatives from Ireland were in the household--or in the neighborhood?
I hope these ideas help.
Patricia
Wednesday 3rd Jan 2024, 05:19PM -
If he was Catholic (as opposed to being a Protestant of English ancestry), then there's a decent chance that he came from County Clare. The Irish surname Ó hÍommhair, which originated there, was frequently anglicized as Howard (and also as O'Hure), and I noticed a number of Howard's from Clare in the Family Search database [https://www.familysearch.org] .
In fact, FS has several Michael Howard's born in or around 1840 who ended up in Iowa, so you might check out the records there. The database is free to use, once you create an account.
kevin45sfl
Thursday 4th Jan 2024, 12:50AM -
We have not found an obituary, but I have photos of his headstone and have visited the cemetery in Iowa where he and some of his family were buried. We don't know his religion, and have not found any probate records. So far there is nothing that identifies any family members either in Ireland or in the U.S.
Henry Simpson
Saturday 6th Jan 2024, 01:18AM