William Joseph Wright

Hi Jim, thanks for your message.

Do you have any documentation that mentions a parish/village/town in Co. Down? If you could find out where in Down they were born/lived it would really help you in your search for information. Religious denomination is also important in determining which records are relevant to your search.

You seem to know a lot about their immigration, do you know which city they entered the US through? Generally more information was given at the port of arrival rather than that of departure. If you knew the city they arrived at it may help you find information - and maybe even an exact place of origin. The US National Archives is a good place to start when looking for immigration information:

http://www.archives.gov/research/immigration/

As they lived in Boston, it may be safe to assume that that is the city they arrived at? From October 1831 through October 1921, the Boston Pilot newspaper printed a ?Missing Friends? column with advertisements from people looking for ?lost? friends and relatives who had emigrated from Ireland to the United States. This extraordinary collection of 40,743 records is available here as a searchable online database, which contains a text record for each ad that appeared in the Pilot. http://infowanted.bc.edu/  Perhaps you could try doing a search for William.

Some other websites which may help you during your research are the National Library and the National Archives of Ireland found at http://www.nli.ie/en/family-history-introduction.aspx and http://www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy1/genealogy-records/introduction/ respectively.

You may also want to look at the following:

The Public Records Office of Northern Ireland http://www.proni.gov.uk/index/family_history.htm

The National Archives UK ? genealogy search: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/looking-for-person/

Family Search: https://familysearch.org/  

I hope that these links help. Remember to post any new infomation that you come across, as 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.

Please be patient - as our programme has only begun to rollout across the island of Ireland and volunteers in some areas may not yet be organized.

Kind regards,                    

Genealogy Support 

Just uploaded photo of William Joseph Wright and his wife Mariah O'Callaghan.  Mariah was Catholic and from Cork as described above.  William Joseph was Protestant and supposedly started working aboard a ship as a cabin boy and then became a helper in the ship's galley.  I am assuming that is how he and Mariah met, either she was already on her way to America or they met when the ship pulled into the port in Cork.

It was passed down by other family members that William had two brothers who went elsewhere.  One supposedly went to Australia and the other went to seek a fortune in Africa.  The names are unknown and there is no knowledge of other siblings.