I have recently learned that my 4th great-grandfather, James Lyons, was from County Antrim. According to a magazine article written about his son, James was born 16 May 1791 and moved to the US in 1816 or 1817, arriving in New York. He married Mary Jane Little/Lyttle, probably from County Down, 16 March 1819 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US. He died 6 November 1867 in Ohio, US.
The children of James and Mary Jane were:
William Lyons, born c. 1820
James Little Lyons born 1822
David M. Lyons
Samuel Lyons
Sarah Lyons
Isabella Lyons born 1830
John P. Lyons born 1833
Andrew J. Lyons born 1836
Do any of you have James in your family records? Thank you for any information!
Barbara Munson munsonfly@yahoo.com
St. Rose, Louisiana, USA
Wednesday 26th Feb 2014, 04:05AM
Message Board Replies
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Dear Barbara
Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out and apologies for the delay in replying to your message.
Unfortunately, it may be difficult to find information without a more specific place of origin. Most Irish record sources- church records, land records, census records- are based on specific locations. Until you know a specific location within Ireland, preferably a parish or placename, it may be difficult to do anything more with these records.
Do you have any documentation pertaining to the family that mentions any place names at all? This can include wills, marriage/death records, census records, letters, diary entries etc.
There are some places where you can search online, however these websites do not have complete collections and many do not cover the period after 1900:
www.familysearch.org has a huge database of genealogical records including some church records for Ireland.
www.rootsireland.ie have a large collection of Irish Church records, however you have to pay to use this site.
http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/ have begun a project to upload Irish church records to their site free of charge. However so far only Counties Dublin, Kerry, Carlow and parts of Cork have been covered.
The website of the Ulster Historical Foundation is also very interesting:
http://www.ancestryireland.com/
Some other websites that may be helpful are:
The National Archives of Ireland: http://www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy1/genealogy-records/introduction/ - you can search the 1901/1911 Census on the National Archives page too
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 Public Records Office of Northern Ireland: http://www.proni.gov.uk/index/family_history.htm
Irish Times: http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/index.htm
Irish Genealogy Tool kit: http://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/
Remember to post any new information that you find here. 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.
Best of luck with your search
Clare Doyle
Genealogy Support
Wednesday 26th Mar 2014, 02:59PM