Coming from Mayo I grew up with Stories of partings and the relatives in America and Australia

Thank you for your interest in Ireland Reaching Out.

The first place to start your search is in your own home - talk to elders in the family - find out about

their 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 family

members, first names (important -as usually past from father to son/mother to daughter) ages at

time of emigration, possible dates of birth/death, religious denominations. Also ask if there are any

surviving 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 other

facts about your ancestors? Hopefully when you have done this - some clues will emerge! After you

have 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 might

have travelled with..etc.? Generally more information was given at the port of arrival rather than the

port of departure. If you knew which city they arrived at (e.g. Liverpool, Ellis Island), this could be a

good place to find more information, and perhaps even find out an exact place of origin. Shipping

manifests 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 most

prevalent. Look at the website http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/surname/ and perhaps

something will match some other clue you may have found elsewhere? If nothing turns

up – it is advisable to try different variations of the spellings of the names. If you have a possible

first name you could try the Irish Census 1901, 1911 at www.census.nationalarchives.ie/ or the land

valuation record called Griffiths Valuation

http://askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml

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

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