A few months ago, I felt I had come to a dead end looking for non-existent Irish records of my direct line ancestors. I still search for them, but realise what I already have, is probably all or at least most of, what I will ever expect to find. My Fermanagh people were not well off or people of standing. On one side, I have my gg grandparents marriage record + 8 out of their 10 children's baptism records. Because I know both of my gg grandparents would have had brothers & sisters, I am now researching other families with the same surnames, who either lived in the same townland or within a few miles radius. I do this, because I don't know who the siblings are. But I do know with 100% certainty, that they existed. Whilst I have not made any real connections yet, it has certainly been very interesting, seeing evidence of family lines in Fermanagh moving between townlands, marrying their neighbours (& cousins) and immigrating to the US/Canada/Australia/NZ with other family members or their friends who lived close by. I am now going back through shipping records etc.to see who else was on that ship. It is amazing how many other people I have found on these lists, who now turn out to be possibly related in some form or another. I often add these people to my tree, but still with no obvious connection to my validated ancestors in it. I also then research & add their parents, their siblings, their children and so on. I guess I hope that one day in the future, I will find someone else, who has that one bit of info, that can validate a connection. When I visited Fermanagh last year & took quite a few gravestone pictures, I did not just photograph those with my family name. Little did I realise back then, that the graves of some of the others that I took, have now made their way into my tree. Names like Gray/Grey, Wilson, Morris etc. People who married into my main research surname, via the siblings &/or cousins of who I hope to validate as my kin. I just need to find out how they are all related. It takes a lot of time and effort, and I may find down the track, that they are not even related. This post is really just about saying, that I think it is worthwhile to search outside the square, and like DH says, add these groups somewhere. Because I am sure sometime in the future, a line will connect, somewhere.