Looking for Sheehan family history

Hi Mary,

Thank you for your  message.

Civil registration began in Ireland in 1864 soyou should be able to find Patrick?s birth record here, and maybe his parents marriage record.. Civil records are available from the General Register?s Office in Dublin. Here is their website:

http://www.groireland.ie/research.htm

You can search the indexes to these records online at:

https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1408347

You could also check in church records for information. Most Catholic records are held locally so you may need to write to the local parish priest for possible assistance. One website that you may find useful is the Irish Times where they give an overview of what records are available in specific parishes. It also shows you where copies of the records are available. For Newcastle West  parish, follow this link:

http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/fuses/rcparishmaps/index.cfm?fuseaction=showidrecords&CityCounty=West%20Limerick&parish=Newcastle-West&churchid=891

Most surviving Church of Ireland records 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. Here are their websites: http://www.nationalarchives.ie/ and http://ireland.anglican.org/about/42

Lists of these surviving registers can also be found at the National Library of Ireland.

Have you tried looking in the 1901/1911 census records to see if you can find his family that remained behind?  http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/

Some other websites that you may find useful 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

Genealogy links: http://www.genealogylinks.net/uk/ireland/limerick/index.html

Limerick City Library: http://www.limerickcity.ie/Library/LocalStudies/

Familysearch: www.familysearch.org

I hope some of this is helpful. 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