I replied to an email query from someone asking about this subject, but my reply bounced. I am posting the answer here in hopes they may find it. On Wed, 5 Oct 2005, chris sanders wrote: > I have been reading your articles found from old newspapers on >shipwrecks in Ireland. I am researching the family history of Harris >Family and Melican family from County Clare. The Harris family have a >long line of naval history starting around 1840 and also the Melican >family although many were also farmers. John Harris married Catherine >Melican they had 11 sons all but two were either Sailors or Coastguards. >As shown on the 1911 census only 6 of the sons were surviving. I am >trying to find out if they lost their lives at sea. Do you have any >information or have you come across anything that could possibly help me. The following are index entries of notices of deaths in the Cork Examiner. They are not necessarily formal death notices or obituaries, but may be any death mentioned in the news, such as report of a sinking. For example, 91 crew members died in the accidental burning of HMS Bombay off Montevideo on 14 December 1864. HARRIS, Henry; ; HMS Bombay at sea URY; Cork Examiner (COR IRL); 1865-2-3 HARRIS, John; ; at sea ENG; Cork Examiner (COR IRL); 1864-11-22 HARRIS, Richard; ; at sea CON ENG; Cork Examiner (COR IRL); 1866-1-6 HARRIS, Robert Captain; ; ; Cork Examiner (COR IRL); 1865-2-1 HARRIS, Samuel; ; at sea ; Cork Examiner (COR IRL); 1862-9-13 HARRIS, William; ; HMS Bombay at sea URY; Cork Examiner (COR IRL); 1865-2-3 I have only one Mellican death notice and it is not at sea. MELLICAN, Patrick; ; Limerick City LIM IRL; Irish-American (NYC NY); 1857-5-9 Civil Registrations of deaths in Ireland did not begin until 1864. At some point, I forget what year, I believe they began recording deaths at sea at the back of each index volume. -dja