"Dennis Ahern" <ahern@world.std.com> wrote in message news:dm2mcs$sag$1@pcls4.std.com... > akennedy_gene at sympatico.ca <akennedy_gene@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. > > The challenge is finding the location. You have exact dates, but if you do > not even know what county in Ireland, it may be difficult to find records. > Sometimes there are mentions of birth death or marriage in newspapers, but > again, if you don't know the locale, it's a big job to search. There are > ways to narrow it down based on distribution data, but that is not always > a guarantee. Ahern, for example, is mostly found in Munster counties, > particularly Cork, but if an Ahern enlisted in the Royal Irish > Constabulary > his first posting would be to a county distant from his home. > Polite snip........ I too am having problems tracing my Irish Ancesters. All I have from English Census records are that an Unknown Casey born in Cork had at least two sons: Dennis Casey b. 1813 and James Casey b. 1816 both born in Cork. Dennis (or Denis) married an unknown Mary b. Ireland 1811 and had a son John b. 1835 and a daughter Elizabeth b. 1837 both born Ireland. James married an unknown Mary b. 1814 in Ireland and had a son Benjamin Casey b. 1843 in Cork and then had further children in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. I don't know what towns in Cork they were born so any tips on where to go from what I have would be most welcome. Thanks in advance Karen :))