Bears repeating - If your families emigrated to the U.S., the COUNTY historical society in the STATE they settled and raised their families can likely help you obtain information and documents on YOUR particular family for a reasonable donation to their society. I have done this with wonderful results. In fact, I got back a treasure-trove -- excerpts from b/m/d records, cemetery records, marriage applications circa 1900 (not to be confused with standard marriage certificates) that had information on the PARENTS of the bride & groom). They also sent me land records that gave "last place lived," newspaper articles, old court cases with names and addresses. I ended up donating $60 to a "good cause," - i.e. the county historical society - at the same time advancing my genealogy greatly. Everything I got back contained some sort of data I did not already have that built on the US Federal Census information I had already obtained from microfilms via my local LDS (Mormon) Fam! ily History Center and/or genealogy library. I looked for and found cousins & aunts and uncles I hadn't heard from in the U. S. and in England for over 50 years. I contacted them and exchanging information by snail mail and e-mail, participated in the planning of family reunions my limited funds would allow me to get to. We all brought old photo albums and copy shop photocopies of old photos to exchange. Many of these contacts started out with my finding their address, sending them a Christmas card and telling them about my family history projects. I also searched the Internet, left messages at schools where I thought relatives might have attended. One all-boys school in England answered me back here in the USA with information! Not only did the retired teacher call me via a transatlantic call, he knew my Irish/English cousins very well and even takes one of them shopping for groceries every week! He also is the town's historian, has written a book, and had photographed one of my English cousin's wedding and sent me a copy of that picture and a copy of his book -- how is that for serendipity! How is that for genealogical kindness. Back to the U. S. county historical societies -- I also found information of MY particular families in issues of their interesting periodicals.. For a $15/year subscription I could look forward to learning about the county and the early families that lived there - something fun to get in the mail! I was able to post queries that would be seen by Internet and non-Internet researchers alike. The year-end issues all have an every-name index. If you subscribe to their periodicals first, the U. S. historical society is likely to "go all out" to assist you. Another resource -- To my astonishment, two of my humble families were even written up in an old Delaware Co. IN history book because of their affiliation with agricultural societies, fraternal societies, were school teachers and/or held an office, owned land, volunteered for the Civil War - and mostly, just because they were early settlers. I also sent for microfilmed (US) newspapers via free interlibrary loan with the help of my reference librarian, looking (and finding) death notices. (Request copies of the newspaper for the two days following a death). If you don't have a definite death date, check with your genealogy library and/or your local LDS FHC. They have microfilmed state death indices divided into approximate 10-year time periods. The names are alphabetical and soundexed and give name of deceased, date of death, place of death, age at death, spouse's name and, best of all, the exact number of the death certificate! Bottom Line -- When you think about it, who would be the most informed about (and interested in) that U. S. county than the members of the historical society? By collecting information from the KNOWN places they lived you will obtain clues that you need to find them in Ireland.