hello- i am looking for info on my burns relatives originally from derry island, castleblayney, co. monaghan. my great grandfather- thomas burns and wife, catherine mc donnell (or mac donald, mc donald) and five children , andrew j. , michael, frank j. , mary (or bridget), and james t. (bornon sept . 26th, 1872) emigrated to indiana usa then to kankakee , illinois in 1875. i do not know when exactly exceprt for year. wife died early on in indiana or illinois, don't know, and thomas had to put kids in orphanage until he could afford to care for them, later on. andrew grew up to be a monsignor, vicar-general of the archdiocese of rockford, illinois' second city and he taught at a stirling, illinois high school for many years till death.mary never married and kept her brogue all her life, michael died young away from family, was a black sheep i garther, james t. was three in 1875 when they emigrated, he grew up to fight in the spanish-american war under genral pershing, studied law and was an attorney, went to WWI ansd was commander of the illinois L infantry division in army , married anna laura gernon who was from a noble norman family of louth and was also genreal pershing's translator/interpreter in war in the navy, he later had 11 kids and became county judge for many years, he ran for lieutenent governor of illinois (lost) and was a state representative in the house for last 8 years of his life, dying in office. frank j was a famous local attorney in kankakee, a "lawyer's town" for excellence, and he made two trips to ireland before 1958 to see family as we know from a letter, he didn't mention where the family was located so we lost all family contact at his death in late 80's early 90's . we would all like to reunite with our co. monaghan burns family- please if anyone knows a burns family in monaghan, please forward this to them, they may remember frank j coming back twice before 1958 to vidsit family, even if they were young then and we may be able to find this way the correct family. can anyone please tell me the names of all local castleblayney papers and monaghan papers that the burns family might read , so that i may write a letter to editors and ask him t o publish it for all locals to see? i would appreciate any help or info on burns families and in knowing the origins of the burns family in monaghan, i know they were originally chieftains from wicklow, emeigrated to monaghan in 1400's or so....others alater on. any help appreciated! thanks, mary burns-de francesco