I am looking for any descendants of the James BURNS family of Mobile. James BURNS (b. 12 Feb. 1806, d. 13 Dec 1883) was from Ireland and Mary, his wife was from England. I believe James came to Mobile in 1836, and married in 1838. James was an engineer for the Gas Works. James and Mary had six children; John, Robert, Alice, Mary, Catherine Ann, and James, Jr. Alice BURNS married my great grandfather, John Patrick HALLIGAN (b. Aug. 1833). John Patrick designed and built a submarine, the "St. Patrick" during the Civil War, and he opened a hardware store after the war. Business was good for awhile, but somewhere around 1880 John closed the business. I believe John sent his two girls, Josephine and Maggie back to Ireland to live with his relatives. The other two sons, Albert Sidney and Robert Lee HALLIGAN stayed with their mother Alice, while John looked for work in New Orleans. In 1881, John died of a sun stroke in New Orleans, and was buried there. Two years later, Alice (age 40) died of dysentery, and was buried in the Old Catholic Cemetery in Mobile. I believe the BURNS family took in the orphaned children, Albert (age 5 years) and Robert (age 14 years) and raised them. Does anyone know if the BURNS family would have to go to court to get custody of the children, after their parents died, and would their be records that I could obtain? Mary Halligan Houston, TX [email protected]