In a message dated 7/26/2008 7:50:48 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: The Great Famine also known as the Irish Potato Famine and the Great Hunger started in 1845 and lasted - depending on the region - until 1849 or even 1852. I understand there were earlier famines, perhaps not quite so widespread, but I must wonder if that would have caused my g-granduncles to emigrate to Adams Co., PA in 1818, according to Uncle Daniel's naturalization papers. G-Grandfather John McGonigle didn't follow them until 1831, with wife and one child. Then again, perhaps the smallish plots of land they farmed weren't able to support so many family members, some of whom remained in Donegal. They were tenants of H. G. Murray Stewart in Drumgornan, according to Griffith's 1857 valuation, he being the owner of a huge amount of land (the return of land owners for 1876 gives his home as Gullygate House, Scotland.) He still owned it in the 1890s, but later electoral rolls show the land as owned by the previous tenants or their descendants. I've not been able to locate any of these emigrants on ships lists of any sort, but I assume they entered through Philadelphia or perhaps Baltimore, as did another ancestor. Maybe these manifests were just lost somewhere, or even never filled out and filed properly. Margo in SoCal **************Get fantasy football with free live scoring. Sign up for FanHouse Fantasy Football today. (http://www.fanhouse.com/fantasyaffair?ncid=aolspr00050000000020)