I recently replied online to a query sent to the list by Jennifer Smit because I found an obituary for her that gave her ancestor's place of birth and she responded to me off-list but as she posed a brilliant question I thought I'd share the answer here as it may prove helpful to others. Her question: "I am amazed that this obit appeared in the Irish American Weekly.... and wonder why.. what was the connection? " Well, the answer is that the newspaper the "Irish American" (the oldest & most influential Irish paper in the USA) was founded on 12 Aug 1849 by Irish born Patrick Lynch (b 1811 Kilkenny - d 1857 Brooklyn, NY). Prior to Patrick's immigration to the USA, he owned and ran the "Limerick and Clare Examiner". When the 1848 troubles came around, Patrick Lynch sold the "Limerick and Clare Examiner" to Limerick native James M'Carthy and headed for the states. As a service to the ever growing immigrant community in the USA who were struggling to stay in touch with folks back in Ireland (not to mention all the other places their loved ones had immigrated to!) the "Irish American" ran a weekly column of births, marriages and deaths for ALL Irish born natives. These notices were culled from IRISH newspapers and other sources. So if your ancestor had a birth or a marriage or an obituary notice printed anywhere in Ireland, or any newspaper that mentioned they were from Ireland and Patrick Lynch had access to it, he made sure that the notice was repeated in his New York based publication. Although Patrick Lynch died in 1857, the paper continued and was edited from 1857 until 1906 by his step-son Patrick J. Meehan, so if you have an ancestor who was born died or married between 1849 and 1906 odds are that you just MIGHT find the notice in the "Irish American" no matter where it was your immigrant ended up. And even if you've already found your ancestor's obit as published in an Irish newspaper or other source, you might want to try looking at the "Irish American" as well, because although generally the notices will be very similar, sometimes you luck out and the notices are slightly different, for instance one might just give the county of their birth, another might actually give the County AND townland, or one may give the month they died and the other the exact date of death, birth, marriage, etc). You can access the "Irish American" via Genealogybank.com. It's not free, but they have deals once in a while and for me the subscription price has been money well spent. Happy Hunting in 2013 Kathy Rhodes Researching SHANAHAN and LUBY in Co Limerick, Tipperary & Waterford PS Very willing and happy to do lookups for anyone on the list!