Hi Margaret, I'm afraid I have more questions than answers! The first question I would ask is, were your Keyes Catholic? I know of a group of Keyes from more west in Tipperary and from Limerick who were members of the Church of Ireland going way back. They do not seem to be connected to the group from east of Templemore that I am tracing. My Keyes (and most of the other Keyes who settled in the US at Paterson, New Jersey) were Catholic. They seem to have moved west into Tipperary around 1800 from Rathdowney Catholic parish in County Laois. Many Keyes appear in the Rathdowney Catholic parish registers in the mid-to-late 1700s. Those families used the distinctive first name Morgan, which later appeared in use among Keyes families on the Tipperary side around Dromard in the early 1800s, then was no longer used by them after that. Are there any men named Morgan in your Keyes families? Although the Rathdowney records began very early compared with other Catholic parishes in the area, there is an unfortunate gap from the 1790s until 1839 (about 2 generations for most families) that makes it almost impossible to trace early Keyes families forward in time. And the records on the Tipperary side (Templemore/Clonmore) don't begin until the early 1800s and also have some gaps. So I think the parish registers are a limiting factor if we try to connect Keyes families from the two areas using records. Of course, there could still be some connection, back in the early 1700s or earlier. How early are the records where your Keyes lived? This would be a wonderful use of yDNA tests if we could find some male descendants to participate. Or perhaps some representative Keyes males are already involved in yDNA testing. Since I have no candidates from my own family who could participate, I haven't followed the Keyes yDNA group very closely. I know of some male Keyes who are descendants of families from the Laois side of the border. However, I don't know if they would be interested in yDNA testing. Lack of records does not allow me to determine if they are related to mine or not. But they have the same migration pattern - from the Tipperary/Laois border area east of Templemore to Paterson, New Jersey. There were so many inter-related Keyes in Paterson that I suspect there is some connection there. I have never encountered any Keyes from Limerick in Paterson, only Keyes from along the Tipperary-Laois border (many of whom associated with one another in Paterson) and one Protestant Keyes family from County Fermanagh that did not associate with the Catholic Keyes families in Paterson. Geralyn Margaret Spearin wrote: > Hi Geralyn > I am researching Keyes in County Limerick bordering on County Tipperary. My > keyes family were in Castleconnell County Limerick and Birdhill County > Tipperary and later in Limerick City. Do you think there might be a link to > your family of Keyes? > > Margaret >