Connolly and Coyne

Hi Tony,

Thank you for your message. It's great to hear that you are planning on visiting in the summer!

You have a placename in Galway which is a good start. Letterfrack is a townland in the civil and Roman Catholic parish of Ballinakill.

Have you tried looking for information on your family in church records? Most Catholic records are held locally. One website which may be of help to you is the irishtimes. Here, they give an overview of what records are available in specific parishes. For Ballinakill parish follow this link:

http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/fuses/rcparishmaps/index.cfm?fuseaction=showidrecords&churchid=1045&CityCounty=Galway&CityCounty=West%20Galway&parish=Ballinakill

Sometimes if the records do not go back far enough it may be worth your while to check the records in neighbouring parishes. To see a map of all the parishes in west Galway use the following link. Simply click on each parish to see what records are available there. 

http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/browse/counties/rcmaps/galwaywrc.htm

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

Also, both Catholic and Church of Ireland records from the pre 1900 period are currently being uploaded to www.irishgenealogy.ie/index.html free of charge. However, as this is an on-going project not all records are available yet.

You could also search the two land records pertaining to Ireland in the 19th century. Although these do not offer an genealogical inforamtion they can be used to tie a person to a specific place. There are two:

The Tithe Applotment Books (1823-1838) found at http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/home.jsp

and Griffith's Valuation (1848-1864) found at http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/  

Do you know much about Mary and Michael's emigration? Generally more inforamtion was given at the port of arrival rather than that of departure so it may be worth your while looking in to it. For inforamtion on US immigration records go to the US National Archives at http://www.archives.gov/research/immigration/

Also, as they were already in New York in 1886 they most likely were processed at Castlegarden To search their database, follow this link:

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

Some other websites which may help you with your research 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

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

Family Search: https://familysearch.org/  

 Galway County Library: http://www.galway.ie/en/Services/Library/LocalHistory/

I hope that this helps you find some information before your trip! We have recently added a link at the top of our page for people who are planning a visit in 2013. We would really appreciate it if you could take a couple of minutes to fill out the webform. Also, if you would like to share the details of your trip with us via our contact form please do so, and we will endeavour to find you a volunteer who may be able to advise or assist you during your trip. http://info@irelandxo.com

Kind regards,

Genealogy Support