Kay writes: === born in "Leervin, Cork, Ireland". Had a look at a map but couldn't find out just where this village was. Can anyone help? I thought it might be around Mitchelstown area.... === Kay, I have some possibilities in the Mitchelstown area. There are a collection of Lyre-related townlands on the Cork-Tipperary border 6 or 7 miles ESE of Mitchelstown. One of these townlands on the border is Lyrefune, which is actually on the Tipperary side, the northernmost part of the the townland is about a mile SW of Ballyporeen (Tip.) and extends southward to the Cork border. Lyrefune is Ladhar Fionn in Irish, so the "e" at the end of Lyrefune would not be pronounced and the "y" would not sound as the "y" in the musical instrument, the lyre. This placename would seem the most likely phonetic origin of "Leervin". However, it is just across the border from Co. Cork - although many residents of this sparse hilly area might have considered themselves from Cork because of the influence of the large town of Mitchelstown. And the birth may have been registered there. Dunno. Even more interestingly, on the Cork side of this border area, are three more Lyre-related townlands - a Lyreen, a plain Lyre one, and a Lyre (Barry) townland. In such cases, the surname in parentheses usually indicates the predominate surname present in the townland at the time of the Ordnance Survey in the first half of the 19th century. Lyrefune in Tip. and Lyre (Barry) in Cork nearly touch each other across the border (Lyrefune and the plain Lyre are actually across the border from each other - the Barry version is adjacent to Lyre on the west side). You might want to check both townlands. Lyrefune is in Templetenny civil parish in S. Tipperary, Lyre (Barry) is in Macroney civil parish, Co. Cork. I don't do any genealogy, so I can't comment on the records, etc. But if you have other questions about the geography, etc. ...... drop me a line. Good luck. Pete .................................................... Pete Schermerhorn, in the glorious Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts </HTML>