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/5426.3 Message Board Post: Griffiths Valuation is really of little use to you since you don't know where in County Leitrim your McSharrys/Foleys were from. It was a valuation for property tax and didn't include everyone because not all property was valued to be taxed. It lists occupiers and lessors. Occupiers wouldn't necessarily even have lived on the land they're listed in because many people just leased land for farming. In addition, Griffiths was done in Leitrim in 1856 which predates the birth of your Patrick which was in 1858. Griffiths would be useful if you knew Patrick's parents names and where he was born in County Leitrim and wanted to see if indeed his father even occupied land in that location for tax purposes before his birth. If Patrick was the first child and his parents weren't married when Griffiths was done, it might be Patrick's grandfather who actually occupied the property. There are no surviving census records and so you would have to search for the location of each church register in the county to find his possible baptismal info. But you don't even have his parents names which could lead you to Patrick McSharrys/Foleys who have no connection whatsoever to yours. So you first need to find his parents names from his US records at the very least. If you can't find his specific location of birth in County Leitrim, your option would be to have Leitrim Heritage research the church records for you county wide on a fee basis to find a possible baptismal record.