I am relating a rather long story, so that others can learn about the ups and downs of genealogy research. It is in essence a story on how I found where my O'Connors came from in Ireland ... I started searching my O'Connor family in 1992 when I first got on the internet. All I had in my babybook was that my great grandfather was James O'Connor and was born in Tipperary, Ireland. Now, I knew my grandfather, James was born in Troy NY, so I had to assume he father emigrated. My first trip back to Troy, since I was a child, was in 1995. I visited the Troy Public Library, the Rensselaer County Courthouse and St. Joseph's Church. In the library, I searched the federal censuses on film and found my grandfather's family in 1880 and 1900 and found he had two brothers I had never heard about, and a sister I had known. I found all their baptisms at St Joseph's. In the courthouse I searched naturalization records in very old books with pages ripped out....it should be noted what when I do research, I write down all occurrences of the O'Connor/Connors name. Also, at St Joseph's, I got all the O'Connor/Connor cemetery records (their is also a St Joseph's Cemetery where the parishioners are buried). When I got home from my trip, back to CA, I started to digest all I had found and put it together in some logical order. From the information, I reconstructed my grandfather's family which included these children by birth order: Timothy, Timothy, Michael, James Timothy, Winifred, John. The only one I had ever met or heard about was Aunt Winnie. However, my grandfather did mention he had a nephew who was a priest who still used the O'Connor name. My grandfather was baptized an O'Connor but died a Connors, his father changed the name when he was young. I found from the cemetery records that the first Timothy died as a baby and the 2nd Timothy died at about 7 yrs of age both before my grandfather was born. From the censuses, I found that ggrandfather, James, had emigrated ca 1863. In the 1870 census, he lived next door to Timothy and Catherine O'Connor and their daughter. With Jame's family there was an older couple, William and Bridget O'Connor. Now, having learned about the Irish naming pattern, I had strong suspicions that Timothy was James' father's name since he named his first two children after him. But to prove it, I would need a death certificate. This is getting long, so I am going to do it in installments... -- Pat Connors, Sacramento CA http://www.connorsgenealogy.com All outgoing mail virus free, scanned by Norton