Still looking for my grandfather William Rooney who, I think, was born in County Cork and immigrated to the US thru Ellis Island in about 1896. He was born June 27, 1877 to William and Margaret (Keeler or Kaelher) Rooney. I do not know any of the parishes or even townships,towns, etc., that would be in the County Cork area. He had two sisters, Ellen and Rose, who also immigrated to the US and all of them settled in Illinois before William relocated in Minnesota. Any help would be so much appreciated. - Audrey Schmitz

Hi Audrey - Wondering where you got your ROONEY families connection to Cork? Family story? Other? Try and get some solid documentation as to a particular Irish county, if you can - perhaps with the help of a historical society in the USA county in which the family lived. The reason I asked is that the fairly common ROONEY surname appeared in only 5 households in Co. Cork on the Primary Valuation of 1848-64. It was found in 200 households in Co. Down, 105 in Co. Leitrim, 103 in Co. Sligo, 91 in Co. Dublin, 65 in Co. Monaghan, 63 in Co. Fermanagh, 59 in Co. Louth, and 57 in Co. Meath, etc. In all, ROONEY surname was found in 30 different counties during that time period. It was also found 47 times in Dublin city and 26 times in Belfast city. Again, there were only 5 Co. Cork ROONEY households. Of course, your ROONEYs could be one of those, or perhaps they emigrated from Queenstown/Cobh, Cork. The rare surname KEELER was found in 2 households in Co. Galway, and 1 each in Cos. Down, Sligo and Derry. There were both KEELER and ROONEY households together in the same parishes in Cos. Down, Galway and Sligo. This could be a good clue for a KEELER/ROONEY marriage as couple often met and married someone in their own parish or a neighbor. You can find out in which parishes they both appeared at the website for a small fee. Chances are that they lived in the same area before and after the Primary Valuation. There was apparently no spelling of KAELHER on the Primary Valuation.. Other spellings??? Per the surname search engine at www.ireland.com/ancestor/ - the surnames KELLER and ROONEY both appeared only in Co. Dublin parish/es on the 1848-64 Primary Valuation. KELLER is a mainly Co. Cork surname; there were 18 KELLER households in Co. Cork, another 6 in Cork City, 2 in Cos. Dublin and Wexford and 1 each in Cos. Antrim and Kerry. ROONEY and KELAHER households were both recorded in the same parishes in Cos. Clare, Fermanagh, Galway and Roscommon. Similarly, ROONEY and KELLEHER households found in Cos. Cavan, Cork, Kerry, Leitrim and Tipperary. ROONEY and KELLIHER households in Cos. Cavan, Fermanagh and Kerry. ROONEY and KELIHER households in Co. Cavan. ROONEY and KELIHAN households in Co. Meath. ROONEY and KELEHER households found in Cos. Cavan, Cork, Derry, Galway and Leitrim. ROONEY and KEELIHER households found in Co. Leitrim. ROONEY and KELCHER households in Cos. Cork, Kerry and Tyrone. Again, ROONEY and KELLEGHER households were found in the same parishes in Cos. Armagh, Fermanagh and Leitrim. ROONEY and KELLAGHER households both in same parishes in Co. Fermanagh. ROONEY and KELAGHER households in Co. Longford. The surname KELLAHER was not found on the Primary Valuation, but it is a variation seen. You can check my notes for accuracy at that website. Jean ----- Original Message ----- From: "grandma audrey" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2007 7:06 PM Subject: [IRELAND] "Lookup Request - Rooney" > Still looking for my grandfather William Rooney who, I think, was born in > County Cork and immigrated to the US thru Ellis Island in about 1896. He > was born June 27, 1877 to William and Margaret (Keeler or Kaelher) Rooney. > I do not know any of the parishes or even townships,towns, etc., that > would be in the County Cork area. He had two sisters, Ellen and Rose, who > also immigrated to the US and all of them settled in Illinois before > William relocated in Minnesota. Any help would be so much appreciated. - > Audrey Schmitz

Added Note: Audrey -- While it likely does not apply to your particular FH, I noted on the Primary Valuation (1848-64) there were CALAHER and ROONEY household/s together in the same parish/es in Co. Clare. There were also ROONEY and CALLAGHER households both found in particular parishes in Dublin city & Co. Louth. You can find out more about particular parishes at the www.ireland.com/ancestor/ website for a small charge. For now - Concentrate on the spellings that you have (KEELER/ROONEY), but to me the ROONEY/KELLER data seems promising since KELLER was found most often in Cork and Co. Cork, and that is where you believe you family came from. When you factor in misspellings because of illiteracy, centuries of turmoil, and also because there was not the emphasis placed on correct spelling, research in Ireland can be daunting. Gathering documents such as death notices, wills, cemetery inscriptions, land and court cases from the KNOWN places they lived, if they emigrated, and queries to living relatives, can often help to narrow things down. Also, check out the Rootsweb ROONEY surname board and lists, conduct surname searches to zero in on other researchers FH that contains some "matches" to your families' known locations. The USA Federal Census for 1920 (or 1930) often gives more precise information on where a person was born, where his parents were born. Since they ended up in IL and MN, check the microfilmed census soundex film to see if you can locate them. Also check the mortality schedules for those counties. Branches of the National Archives (USA) have these films, also your local LDS (Mormon) FHCs. I believe that Ancestry.com paid subscriptions have these to check. Also look at www.familysearch.org The state and county historical societies can do look-ups for you and/or send you circulating copies of soundex films to your local library. It has been my experience that the latter took up to six weeks, but the LDS FHCs had those films for me on site within 7-10 days. Genealogy libraries or libraries with genealogy floors also have indices to the USA Federal Censuses on their Reference Shelves. These go back to the Revolutionary War and forward (depending on the State) to 1870, 1880, even 1900. **** Check the websites regarding USA Federal Censuses. Some states took additional censuses between the Federal Censuses that were taken every ten years!!!! Bottom line - I have had great luck enlisting the help of USA county historical societies whose volunteers have found reams of documents for me including wills for a fair cost using their local resources which they are familiar with. They have expertise, knowledge regarding "their" county. This is a great way to "jump start" your private research. Jean --- Original Message ----- From: "Jean R." <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, October 01, 2007 1:29 AM Subject: Re: [IRELAND] "Lookup Request - Rooney" -- KEELER/ROONEY > Hi Audrey - Wondering where you got your ROONEY families connection to > Cork? <snip> > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "grandma audrey" <[email protected]> > To: <[email protected]> > Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2007 7:06 PM > Subject: [IRELAND] "Lookup Request - Rooney" > > >> Still looking for my grandfather William Rooney who, I think, was born in >> County Cork and immigrated to the US thru Ellis Island in about 1896. He >> was born June 27, 1877 to William and Margaret (Keeler or Kaelher) >> Rooney. >> I do not know any of the parishes or even townships,towns, etc., that >> would be in the County Cork area. He had two sisters, Ellen and Rose, >> who >> also immigrated to the US and all of them settled in Illinois before >> William relocated in Minnesota. Any help would be so much >> ppreciated. - >> Audrey Schmitz