I have been reading these messages for about a year,, and I thank you very much for letting me look over your shoulders. I have learned a lot about Ireland and doing genealogical research.   I got started trying to find out more about my g-mother Catherine Duffy. I am very curious about her, since she apparently paid a very high price for marrying my g-father Albert Robinson. Our families split because she was ex-communicated when she married , and apparently it scarred everyone, because I never remember meeting any Duffy relatives, even though they probably lived only 15 miles away.  My mother would not talk about it. Her parents John(P), b1841/1843, and Ann(Duffy), b 1842 were probably from County Mayo. They show up in the 1870 US Census in Pilesgrove Township of New Jersey. I surmise old John sent his 17 year daughter to be a servant in someones house in Woodstown, NJ, and there she must have met Albert Robinson, apparently a charming young "sport" from a well-to-do old farming family in South Jersey. After reading on this mailing list about the Irish Famine and how the Irish Catholics were treated, I can better understand the split and the bitterness. I can't imagine anything that hurt old John more than his daughter running away with an English Protestant.   I have to get back to NJ and do some digging before I can find out more.