This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/YWC.2ACI/5358.3.1.1.1.1.1.1 Message Board Post: Hello Patricia, Before you can begin to research Catherine's family in Ireland you need to know: a) her parents names b) her place of birth in Ireland, i.e. the town/townland/civil parish and county and c) her birth date. Trying to connect her to a location in Ireland through Irish birth records for 1864 couldn't guarantee you'd have the right person for several reasons: a) Her parents names are unknown so there would be no way to know if the person's birth in Ireland was the same person even though the name is the same. . b) civil registration of births in Ireland only started in 1864 and many people wouldn't pay the fee to register the birth during the early years. The English Government (Ireland had no home government at that time) really had no way of checking whether there was a birth or not. Compliance really wasn't fully implemented for many years so many births went completely unregistered in the early times. So you'd need to complete research for Catherine in the US to find the detail you need to continue research in Ireland. Since she emigrated when she was 6 you need to find who she emigrated with. She wouldn't have gone alone to the US at that age. It may have been her parents and perhaps other siblings so there may have been no immediate family left in Ireland after they emigrated. Start with US census records beginning in 1870 and succeeding ones and gather all the information you can about her and the family. The surname may have been misspelled in the early records because of difficulty understanding the Irish accent so you'll need to use the soundex or the other variations of the surname for your research. The surname variations in Ireland include: McKearnan, McKeernan, McKeirnan, McKernan and McKirnan. . Research the following civil and religious records: a) Catherine's marriage and death records, her tombstone, cemetery record, obituary and will. Sponsors for her marriage may have been relations and may possibly be other sources for research in the US to find the place of nativity in Ireland. b) Some member of her family had to be naturalised a US citizen. The census records will show Catherine's naturalisation information also. Since she probably emigrated with her parents, her father may have secured naturalisation for himself and the children. The naturalisation records may include where the family was from in Ireland. c) Catherine's children's church and civil birth, baptism, marriage and death records may include where their mother was born in Ireland. Again, they may include sponsors who were relations. With the general absence of census records in Ireland for the 1800s, church registers for the specific location of birth in Ireland are the primary source of family research. So that's why it's necessary to know the specific place of birth, the town/townland/civil parish and county to determine what church registers might be available for that location and where they might be accessed. There are over 64,000 towns and townlands in Ireland. Best wishes in your research. Regards. Eilís O'Hara Ireland