This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: AnnetteCode Surnames: Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.britisles.ireland.lex.general/2797.1/mb.ashx Message Board Post: County Laois belongs to an online Foundation made up of most county genealogy offices in Ireland. Kelly's are a difficult name to search too many of the same names, so happy to see Bernard! However, there is no record for Bernard in Laois, there are 78 in Ireland born between 1831-1841. There are records for Thomas, William, Margaret with father's William but I would have to say these could not be correct as the other children aren't there. I am speculating that the Parish their records came from does not have such early records. I did an all Ireland search with both Parents names and came up no record, (all except for Co. Sligo and Co. Limerick) do have this advanced search option. Also there are the six counties who do not belong to the Foundation. A check to see what counties share boundaries with Laois but do not belong to the Foundation and that is only Co. Carlow all others are members. There were 140 William's born in Laois from 1765. 7 from 1816-1827 which is about when I figure he was born. No records for a Margaet Wilson during those years in Co. Laois. They left too early to make it in the 1850s Griffith Valuation but good guesses can be made about the parish's. The earlier Tithe 1820-1830's would probably have his father occupying land rather than William himself. These are only available in bits and pieces, or complete at the National Archives in Dublin, and Ancestry recently added the Tithe's to their Irish Collection but only the date and place, no details on the land. That would similar to a detailed Griffith Valuation. The only Bernard Kelly's were in Galway, Sligo, Westmeath, Donegal, Cavan, Roscommon has Bernard Kelly, Esquire. Griffith Valuations have 520 Kelly's and 28 Wilson's so there will be Kelly's in most parish's. These are the Parish's where both families lived: Abbeyleix 4 Wilson/11 Kelly (records from 1824) Ardea 1 Wilson/13 Kelly Borris 2 Wilson/31 Kelly Killabban 7 Wilson/28 Kelly Moyanna 1 Wilson/14 Kelly Rathdowney 3 Wilson/15 Kelly(records from 1763) Rosenallis 1 Wilson/1 Kelly (records from 1766) There were no Bernard's which I would of assumed would be William's father's name, he could have been deceased. 27 Thomas, 4 Charles, 3 George, 53 William. All in the above Parish's. I notice by googling the name of the parish I mostly get Rootsweb information which are parish records, would be worth an extensive look. I did check Parish Killabban and found a 1845 marriage of a Thomas Kelly to Eliza King with no parents name and Anne Slater a witness but 2nd. witness was unreadable. The Parish's with the early records I would have to say are probably not where your families were from or they would of turned up in the records on the Foundation website as these are collected from local parish's. other resources: www.censusfinder.com United Kingdom Ireland Laois www.igp-web.com Laois Annette Code Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.