Fitzgerald's of Queens' County

Hi Diane,

Thank you for your message.

Do you have any other information that you can share? It will be quite difficult to find information on Margaret without a more specific place of origin.  Most Irish record sources- church records, land records, census records- are based on specific locations. Until you know a specific location within Ireland, preferably a parish or placename, it may be difficult to do anything more with these records.

Do you have any documentation pertaining to the family that mentions any place names at all? This can include wills, marriage/death records,census records, letters, diary entries etc.

There are some places where you can search online, however it may be difficult to discern whether the results are relevant to your family or not without more information:

www.familysearch.org has a huge database of genealogical records including some church records for Ireland.

www.rootsireland.ie have a large collection of Irish Church records, however you have to pay to use this site.

Have you tried looking into the girls emigration? Generally, more information was given at the port of arrival rather than the port of departure.The Public Record Office of Victoria has good online databases of settlers at www.prov.vic.gov.au Otherwise, other records may be found in the Colonial Office Papers of the UK National Archives, class reference CO 201. This class contains a wide variety of records, including petitions for assisted passages, emigrants' lists, records of emigrants on board ship, petitions from settlers for financial assistance and much more.

With regards to Margaret having been in a workhouse it is difficult to say. Just because she left from Liverpool it doesn?t necessarily mean that she was living there as Irish emigrants did sometimes travel over to Liverpool specifically to get a ship overseas.

Here are some websites that you may find useful when researching the Laois Workhouse:

http://www.laois.ie/LeisureandCulture/Libraries/LocalResearch/LocalStudies/

http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Abbeyleix/

http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Mountmellick/

http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Donaghmore/

Some other more general websites 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 National Archives UK ? genealogy search: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/looking-for-person/

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

Family Search: www.familysearch.org

Irish Times: http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/index.htm

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

Laois Genealogy: http://www.laoisgenealogy.com/

Alternatively, you could contact Irish Midlands Ancestry for assistance, however a fee may apply. Here is their email: info@offalyhistory.ie

I hope some of these are helpful. Remember to post any new information that you find here. 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.

Kind regards,

Genealogy Support