Alan, When I started out as you are doing, I read somewhere that if you don't already know where your Irish ancestors came from, you will never find them. For me, that has proved to be true. But I don't want to discourage you. The magic key seems to be some bit of paper somewhere in the family, an old letter, a single word on the back of an old picture, something that tells you the place of origin. So if you have not already done so, suggest you contact every member of the family and get them to pull out every piece of paper which might be connected with your ggf so you can examine them for clues. You might also get lucky with a death certificate or some other Canadian record, but I don't know anything about those things in Canada. Good luck in your search. Jim akennedy_gene at sympatico.ca wrote: > I've been working on my genealogy off and on for the last 20 years. > Until recently, I was unable to find any information on my fathers side > of the family. I now know that his grandfather/mother were born in > Ireland (I have exact dates) prior to 1865. > > My question is - what are my chances of finding anything? From my > initial search of what records there are would indicate that I might > have a lot of trouble. There are no complete census for this time > period, no civil registration etc. > > Any advide as to where to start would be appreciated. > > Thanks, > Alan Kennedy > > Joseph Kennedy - Margaret McCullough (Ireland) >