OWEN DYER from ROSCOMMON

The first place to start your search is in your own home - talk to elders in the family - find out abouttheir parents, grandparents etc. Perhaps they have a story of one of your ancestors? Things to enquire about include: occupations, places of residence, who they were living with(people often stayed with others from their home villages after emigration), siblings & other familymembers, first names (important -as usually past from father to son/mother to daughter) ages attime of emigration, possible dates of birth/death, religious denominations. Also ask if there are anysurviving photographs, old documents or letters - record all the information you can find. Write/telephone other members of your family to check details -perhaps they can remember otherfacts about your ancestors? Hopefully when you have done this - some clues will emerge! After youhave identified the emigrant- begin tracing the steps back to Ireland. Do you know much about their emigration? The dates, the reason why they left, who they mighthave travelled with..etc.? Generally more information was given at the port of arrival rather than theport of departure. If you knew which city they arrived at (e.g. Liverpool, Ellis Island), this could be agood place to find more information, and perhaps even find out an exact place of origin. Shippingmanifests can be checked ?which may lead to more clues. The next thing you could do is find the counties and places in Ireland your family names are mostprevalent. Look at the website http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/surname/ and perhapssomething will match some other clue you may have found elsewhere? If nothing turnsup ? it is advisable to try different variations of the spellings of the names. If you have a possiblefirst name you could try the Irish Census 1901, 1911 at www.census.nationalarchives.ie/ or the landvaluation record called Griffiths Valuationhttp://askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml Ellis Island:http://www.ellisisland.org/search/passSearch.asp Castlegarden:http://www.castlegarden.org/ US National Archives/Immigration info:http://www.archives.gov/research/immigration/ The Boston Pilot; From October 1831 through October 1921, the Boston Pilot newspaper printed a?Missing Friends? column with advertisements from people looking for ?lost? friends and relativeswho had emigrated from Ireland to the United States. This extraordinary collection of 40,743 recordsis available here as a searchable online database, which contains a text record for each ad thatappeared in the Pilot. http://infowanted.bc.edu/ The next thing you could do is find the counties and places in Ireland your family names are mostprevalent. Look at the website http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/surname/ and perhapssomething will match some other clue you may have found elsewhere? If nothing turnsup ? it is advisable to try different variations of the spellings of the names. If you have a possiblefirst name you could try the Irish Census 1901, 1911 at www.census.nationalarchives.ie/ or the landvaluation record called Griffiths Valuationhttp://askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml

thankyou for your helpful reply. details as follow-up: 

1. There are no living relatives who can supply me with info on Owen DYER

2.my posting was in error: I do not have an emigration date, altho I found a record of an Owen Dyer arriving in New york I can not confirm  that is him.

3.1901 & 1911 Irish census will not help because Owen Dyer was living in Perth Co. ( Startford area) as a farmer by both those dates

4. have been able to access through Griffiths Valuation 2 possible areas in roscommon but again both list a Owen Dyer, cannot confirm because I do not know Owen's fathers name.

5. Was able to obtain a copy of Owen Dyer's obit published in paper but all it said was he was born in Roscommon and no other dates as to when he emigrated to Canada. 

6. will definetly try once again the records for landings in Ellis Island and as you rightly said maybe I can obtain more information.The info I  found before said that a Owen DYER about age 21 arrived by himself.

7. have tried using his wife Bridget FLYNN to see if I could find a connection as to when she arrived in Canada and if she was married when she arrived... this  produced even less results. What I have not done is obtain her obit for possible clue as to where her family came from. I can find no census in Ontario Canada for FLYNN at the approx. time Owen Dyer was in Canada. 

8.yes I did check under surnames for counties where that name was most prevelant and again came up with the 2 orginal areas I found in the Griffith Valuation.

9. using the possible naming factor for irish children there is the possibility that owen's father's name was Martin..however their child Martin appears in only 1 Canada Census and I can find no death record for the child...perhaps a possibility is to explore the Martin DYER'S in the Roscommon area to see if he had a son named Owen?

again I thank you for the great hints wilk most certainly pursue once again your helpful suggestions. Please stay in touch... look forward to hearing from you again

regards maureen  

Hi, I have been researching Dyer families in East Mayo and West Roscommon for some years. I'm not related to Owen and Bridget, but I have some info that may help you;

Daughter Mary was baptised in Tibohine parish, Roscommon, Ireland on 29 Jan 1843. Sponsors were Martin Doud (?) and Eleanor Mylet.

Son John Dyer was baptised in Tibohine parish on 2 Mar 1845. Sponsors were Patrick Flynn and Margaret Vesey.

I checked rootsireland.ie and found the marriage of Eugene Dyer and Bridget Flynn in Tibohine parish in 1841. The name Owen is the same as Eugene (often noted as Eugenius in Latin parish records). 

Hope this helps