I am searching for the Irish origins of my great, great grandfather named James Leddy. He was born in Ireland in April of 1860, immigrated to the US in the early 1870's, and became a US citizen in 1873. He returned to Ireland and married Catherine who was born in May of 1863. Catherine had a son named Patrick Leddy born February 1881 in Ireland. They all immigrated to New York City soon after as Catherine and Patrick were naturalized as US citizens in 1882. The James and Catherine Leddy family appear in the 1990 US census living in Brooklyn, NY, with children, Patrick, Annie, Timothy, James, jr., Michael, Mary, John and Thomas. The family history is thin but some speculate that James and Catherine were from somewhere in, or near, County Clare? I sure would appreciate any help in finding out more?
Sean Leddy
Sunday 20th Jan 2013, 04:59PM
Message Board Replies
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Hi,
Thank you for your message. If you think your ancestors may have originated in Co Clare - you could try the Clare County Library as they are an excellent resource for genealogy research. http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/genealogy/genealog.htm
Do you have any further information regarding the family? Do you know much about their emigration? The dates, the reason why they left, who they may have travelled with?..etc..Generally more information was given at the port of arrival rather than the port of departure. If you knew which city they arrived at (e.g. Liverpool, New York, etc.), this could be a good place to find more information. -And perhaps even find out an exact place of origin.
Do you know their religion? Most Catholic records are held locally - One site which might be of use is - http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/browse/ - where you can ?browse? an overview of available records per county. If you have any difficulty, you could try writing to the parish priest for possible assistance.
Church of Ireland parish registers for the period up to 1870-are public records. Registers are available for about one third of the parishes, however many were destroyed in the Public Records Office in Dublin in 1922. Most are still held by the local clergy, although some are in the National Archives of Ireland and others are in the Representative Church Body Library in Dublin. A list of all surviving registers is available in the National Archives. http://ireland.anglican.org/about/42 and http://www.nationalarchives.ie/. The Anglican Record Project is has created an index to their records: http://ireland.anglican.org/cmsfiles/pdf/AboutUs/library/AngRecord/bunclodyunionindex.pdf
Some sites that may be of use to you are:
The National Archives of Ireland http://www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy1/genealogy-records/introduction/
The National Library of Ireland http://www.nli.ie/en/family-history-introduction.aspx
The National Archives UK ? genealogy search: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/looking-for-person/
The US National Archives: http://www.archives.gov/
Remember to post as much information as you can with regard to the people you are researching. The more information you post, the more likely it is that one of our volunteers will be able to advise or assist you. Also include information concerning which sources you may have already used so others may further your search.
Kind regards,
Genealogy Support
Wednesday 6th Mar 2013, 02:46PM