Marlene at marsmemories@sio.midco.net writes: << came from Claregalway or a village in Galway by the name of Ballyracheneau or something like that in Southern Ireland. Does anyone know what parish these two villages would be in? >> Marlene, OK...... Claregalway is easy - a townland and village along the musical N 17, just 5 miles NE of Galway City, and located in Claregalway civil and RC parish. The Ballyracheneau is a complete non-starter. Sounds a bit Norman to me......except for the Bally part. Anyway, none of the 330-plus townlands starting with Balla through Bally are anyway similar to this. So I decided to forget about the Bally part (it only means village, town, settlement, etc. anyway) and go for the 'racheneau'. Conveniently, just 4 miles up the N 17 from Claregalway (I'll bet some of their notorious rush-hour tailbacks have extended this far) is the townland of.......wait for it ......... Racoona. It's certainly easily reached from Claregalway, even though it is across the line into the civil parish of Annaghdown. Racoona is probably in Corrandulla RC parish, but could possibly be in Lackagh RC parish. This may be the best option you have. Looks good to me. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Pete Schermerhorn, in the glorious Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts