Hi Jane My grandfather and his brother and brother in law all emigrated to Scranton, Pennsylvania to work in the Coal Mines. From there, they went on to homestead in Nebraska. I read somewhere that Scranton, PA was a draw for people from Mayo. Peter and John, brothers, were both from Culnakillew, Addergoole Parish, Co. Mayo. I hear that Culnakillew now is still very rural with only a few homes. I have often wondered if there was a advertising push in newspapers to recruit people to work in the mines. I am sure word of mouth and following family was the surest way for them to wind up in these places. Peter came here with only a few cents in his pocket and by the time he died in 1920 he had outlived two wives, married a third (my grandmother) when he was 69, had three children by her, and left an estate worth 1/2 million dollars by todays value. Sad after all that hard work that the price of farmland was dropping precipitously, farmers had a harder and harder time getting loans. Businesses were still viable but crop prices where dropping. The executors of his properties couldn't even find anyone to work the land, let alone buy it at a reasonable price. They held on to the properties hoping things would get better until 1930 as the States slipped into the Great Depression. My grandmother raised her family on the equivalent of $550 a month in todays money for years before selling the property for a pittance of its worth. I know all this because I have a 103 pages from his file for his estate where everything was documented as to her allowance right down to the last piece of coal she bought to keep them warm. Imagine my suprise when I sent for a copy of his will and found that! She lived to be 93 and never mentioned it. Man, the stories that are out there that waiting to be found. Delia