James McCue from Ballinakill?

Hi,

Thank you for your message.

Have you tried using the land records pertaining to Ireland in the 19th century? Although these do not have any genealogical information in them they can be used to tie individuals to specific places. You could try searching for James? parents in these and also James himself. 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/     

Once you have a definite parish, you can then check Church records for information. Most Catholic records are held locally. One website which you may find useful is the Irish Times. Here they give an overview of what records are available in specific parishes. Follow this link to maps of Galway Roman Catholic parishes. Just click on the relevant parish and you can see what records are available there:

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

For Church of Ireland records check http://ireland.anglican.org/about/42 and http://www.nationalarchives.ie/.  The Anglican Record Project is has created an index to their records: http://ireland.anglican.org/cmsfiles/pdf/AboutUs/library/AngRecord/bunclodyunionindex.pdf

You could also try looking into his emigration. Generally more information was given at the port of arrival rather than that of departure. For information on immigration records in the US check the US National Archives at the following link:

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

You should also be aware that there are many different variations on McCue that could have been used. Here is a link to that shows some of these variations and gives some information on the surname:

http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/surname/index.cfm?fuseaction=Go.&Surname=McCue&UserID=

Some other websites which you may find useful in 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

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

Family Search: https://familysearch.org/

CENSUS RECORDS There is lots of useful information to be found in the 1901 and 1911 census records. You can find this here: http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/

I hope that this is helpful. Best of luck with your research.

Kind regards,

Genealogy Support

Hope you had a chance to contact the four (4) other Ballinakill-Ballynakill Parishes in County Galway (in Derrybrien, Ballymoe, Killian and Leitrim) that are listed on this Ireland Reaching Out website.

In looking for my O'Keane/Keane ancestors that turned up in this particular Ballinakill (Ballynahich) Parish in far northwest County Galway (through a DNA Project Group on Family Tree DNA), I discovered that this far north part of County Galway was originally a part of County Mayo---so, maybe you can rule out this Parish. (Source for the change in land division came from the Mayo County Library in Castlebar, County Mayo.)

Don't forget to match up the Ballinakill-Ballynakill Parishes in County Galway with the major town or towns in that area on Google Maps and then go to to either of two connections to find the Roman Catholic Churches in those towns where you will find the contact information for each church. URL addresses for the websites are: www.catholicireland.net and freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~irishchurches/RC%20Churches/Roman%20Catholic%20churches.html 

From there you can contact them and ask them to check their church records for you ancestor. (Provide all the info you have on the ancestor and other relatives, especially parent-to-child, so they can look at baptismal records.)

Good luck.