Loreen Wells <loreenwl@peoplepc.com> said: >I have been told that Ireland kept records on persons who emigrated, >including information about parents, etc. Does anyone know if this is >true, and if so, how would one access those records? My grandmother came There was no requirement for recording information on departing emigrants. That said, there are occasional references in various sources to people who have emigrated. For example, there is a database on the National Archives of Ireland's website that contains data on criminals transported to Australia. There are also lists of orphan girls who were sent out to Australia by charitable and social welfare organizations. And the Library at the Ulster-American Folk Park in Co. Tyrone has a database with information collected about various subsidized emigration schemes, for example when a landlord paid to send all of his tenants elsewhere to free up the land for grazing. >into the US from Ireland in 1899. I believe I have her entry through >Ellis Island, including the ship name and the US arrival date. That ship >left from Mitchestown. It would help immensely to find records of her >departure in Ireland, especially if those records contain more about her >family there. I've never heard of a Mitchestown in Ireland. It's probably a typo for Mitchelstown in County Cork. It is not, however, a seaport. The only way someone could have left Mitchelstown by water would be in a canoe down the River Funchion. The good news is, if you have a passenger arrival at Ellis Island that refers to Mitchelstown, it probably means that is where they were from, not where the ship left from. If you look at the actual passenger manifest it should show what port the ship sailed from, probably Queenstown, or Liverpool/Queenstown. Also look at the size of the ship. Small schooners carrying a dozen or so passengers sometimes sailed from places like Youghal, in Co. Cork, but large vessels with hundreds of passengers usually started from Liverpool and picked up additional passengers in Queenstown (now called Cobh) in Co. Cork. See http://www.rootsweb.com/~irlmahs/mherit.htm for information on the Mallow Heritage Centre which has Roman Catholic parish records for Mitchelstown on computer. -dja