Seeking Irish roots

Hi,

Thanks for your message and interest in Ireland Reaching Out.

There are a number of places where you can look for information:

Firstly, you could search the land records pertaining to Ireland in the 19th century. These are arranged according to Parish, so perhaps if you can find some record of John having land in Lisdowney at least this will confirm that you are looking in the right parish. There are two such records:

The Tithe Applotment Books, dating from 1823 to 1838, found at http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/home.jsp

and the Griffith's Valuation, dating from 1848 to 1864, found at http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/  

Do you know much about his emigration? Generally, more information was given at the port of arrival rather than that of departure, so you may be able to get information (and perhaps an exact place of origin) by looking into this.

A good place to start is the US National Archives Immigration information. You can find this here:

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

You can also search for him on passanger lists at the following websites:

Ellis Island: http://www.ellisisland.org/search/passSearch.asp

and

Castlegarden: http://www.castlegarden.org/

Once you have a definite place of origin you can also look through Church records. Many Catholic records are held locally. One useful website is irishtimes.com/ancestry, as it allows you to search what records are available in each parish. If you follow this link it will show what records are available for Lisdowney:

http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/fuses/rcparishmaps/index.cfm?fuseaction=showidrecords&CityCounty=Kilkenny&parish=Lisdowney&churchid=996

For Church of Ireland Records go to http://ireland.anglican.org/about/42 and http://www.nationalarchives.ie/.

Some other websites that may be helpful in your search are the National Library at http://www.nli.ie/en/family-history-introduction.aspx and Family Search at https://familysearch.org/  

I hope this helps. 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