Family Maybe from county Galway

Hi there,

Could you please post your message here: http://www.irelandxo.com/group/county-mayo

It is very difficult to carry out research without an exact place of origin or more specific dates. Do you have any other documentation in your family, such as family bibles or other official documents? These may give more clues. You should consider asking other relatives for information. Someone else might know the vital clue that you need to get you started.

I can suggest some websites you could look at, but really you will need more details before you can really get started.

Civil registration records are available from the General Register Office (GRO). These start from 1864 however. You can access the website here: http://www.groireland.ie/research.htm

Have you tried checking the Ellis Island records (www.ellisisland.org) or the Castle Garden records (www.castlegarden.org)? Generally, more information was given at the port of arrival rather than the port of departure. If you knew which city they arrived at, this could be a good place to find more information, and perhaps even find out an exact place of origin.

You could also try checking the land records called the Tithe Applotment Books (1823-38) or the later Griffth's Valuation (1848-64). Griffith's is freely available here: www.askaboutireland.com or here: www.failteromhat.com Failte Romhat has lots of other useful links you could try looking at.

You could also take a look at the 1901/1911 census records to check for the frequency of the surnames in those counties. It might help to give you some leads perhaps. You can check this here: http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/

Please make sure you link anyone else in your family who is interested in their Irish heritage to our site - and indeed anyone else you know of Irish heritage.

Kind regards,

Sinead Cooney

Genealogist (Ireland XO)

You might want to reach out to find other descendents of Michael and Margaret using the genealogy Surname Message Boards.   I've had good luck on Ancestry.com and have found cousins living nearby with family letters and pictures.  You don't have to be a paying member to use the Message Boards, but you do need to sign in.  

I'm also from the Chicago area.  The Chicago Tribune Obituaries Archive  is a good source for tracing the families and finding married names of the daughters.  I have online access if  you need some help.  Happy to do lookups for you.

Also I recently found that Family Search has scanned early birth and marriage records for Chicago parishes.  It's a bit tedious, but you might find some other family names as sponsors.   https://familysearch.org/search/image/index#uri=https%3A//familysearch…;

If you use Facebook,  there are some very helpful County Genealogy Groups.  You might also find other Dillon/Hart researchers.

Cathy

I am researching a Mary Dillon born 1841 in parish Tuam, Galway.  Her father was Patrick Dillon and mother Sarah McKeo/McKeough Dillon.  Please contact if you see any connection.    Ken Webb    papawebb1942@yahoo.com