Ancestor Search

Hi, 

Thanks for your message and interest in Ireland Reaching Out.

It will be much easier for you to find information on William if you can narrow down a definite place of origin.Do you have any documnentation that may mention any names of parishes, or even towns/villages?

Do you know much about his emigration? Generally, more inforamtion was given at the port of arrival rather than that of departure If you knew which city he arrived at it may help you find information- and perhaps even an exact place of origin. A good place to start looking for this type of information is the US National archives at the following address:

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

Once you know the place of origin you can then search church records. Catholic records are mostly held locally. One website which may help you is the irishtimes website where they give an overview of what records are available in specific counties. Here is the link for this: http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/browse/#counties

For Church of Ireland records, you can check http://ireland.anglican.org/about/42 and http://www.nationalarchives.ie/

You could try searching the 1901 census records also to see if you can find some mention of any family that was left behind. You can do this here: http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/

Some other websites which may help 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

Family Search: https://familysearch.org/  

I hope this is of some help. 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.

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