Actually, Mary, I once asked a professional genealogist how it is that if someone is elected President of the US and claims to have Irish ancestry, within three months there will be an article posted that gives the exact location of the family in Ireland. Without fail. The professional genealogists said, that they get as close as they can and just "assume." It's great PR for Ireland and for family history. With respect to baptismal records, I believe that baptisms often weren't performed in the Church. The parish priest would go circuit riding every so often and carry the baptismal register in his pocket, especially during the times when it was illegal for Catholics to keep records, in theory, before 1829 or so. He would stop off at every home in the parish and baptize all the new arrivals. I suppose sometimes the books got lost or burned. And when you do find a baptismal record, often the writing is so small and cramped, in Latin of course, that it is almost impossible to read. I haven't found any baptisms of my people in Ireland at all. Ray Marshall Bright and Sunny today in Minneapolis. But not too humind. -----Original Message----- From: Mary Simpson [mailto:marymcs@talktalk.net] Sent: Sunday, August 11, 2013 5:40 PM To: ray.marshall@gmail.com Cc: irl-kerry@rootsweb.com; irl-cork@rootsweb.com Subject: Knowing " where they were all from " Hello Ray, despite always knowing where our great grandmama Catherine Callaghan, ( whose father was Jerry Callaghan ) came from in Cork - down to the actual fields - I STILL cannot find her baptismal record , which should be Ballinhassig about 1840 ... and we have the names of brothers & sisters, nephews & nieces etc. so perhaps it's all academic, and those who don't know what part of Ireland their family came from can adopt whatever place they most fancy! It would be a lot less hassle. At least the US, Australian and New Zealand listers have the possible option of searching ship's registers and port documents, something that British listers can only envy, as their families came with no paper trail to search at all. Mary=