Dear Beara Group Members, Can anyone recommend a professional genealogist I might contact for family research in County Cork? Mr. O'Dwyer graciously searched the records on Beara Island for any note of the birth of my ancestor, James Thomas Brady, on May 5, 1840 or 1839, to Mary Sullivan and James Brady. None was to be found. James T. came to Charleston, NC with Mary and her brother (no name) in ??? & enlisted in the Confederate Marines where he fought on the Merrimac, the ironclad ship, before he was captured and jailed in Castle Thunder (1862-1866-1868). He survived the Civil War and came to Texas in 1870 when he could not find his mother or any family back in Charleston, NC. He died on November 20, 1908 and is buried in Thorton Cemetery. His grave stone says "I'm on my ship and sailing home." (He wrote that he was "from Beara Island.") Thank you for any advice you can provide on my continued search for family and history on or near Beara Island.