The conversations have been very interesting lately! I am lucky in that I know about grandparents, g grandparents and whereabouts in Ireland they came from, I really feel for people who only have " Ireland " or the county that they came from, it's hard enough at the best of times - oh to have the ease of a Scottish forebear, SO easy to look up! - and so now I am trying to find g g grandparents, and g g aunts & uncles etc, and also, even more importantly, something about the places that they lived in and the history of those places. We did find one g g g grandfather and mother in Kerry, just exactly where my mother had said they were, and have been reunited with the family, which has been something very special. Its just as important " to put flesh " on our families lives that we take into account all the other people around and with them, their neighbours, friends, co-workers, other tradespeople, Parish Priests, even landlords! If we are able to find these and place them it makes so much more sense and brings the past alive. I have a grandfather who was a cottier and shared con-acre with his neighbour, and I have been able to pinpoint on the old maps just exactly where this all was, and to be able to transpose the spot onto today's map. And if you then find their graves in the local churchyard it does give you goosepimples...... It's a way of telling them that they are still important to us, and have not been forgotten. Also don't ever overlook witnesses to marriages, sponsors or Godparents, or people giving information about births or deaths, they are usually family. All this is hard, but it's because it's so very hard that it is so rewarding. However, from time to time, it is very sensible to take a break, clear out the old grey matter and give it a rest. Then you can return to the problem with a clear head. Mary By the way, does anybody have any idea at all of how I start looking for my grandfather's elder brother, who left London for Madagascar ( of all places! Why on earth there? ) sometime before 1891? Wexford family, PATRICK WALSH, born about 1839, father and mother unknown, from Barntown. Moved into Wexford town, parish of St Iberius, died 1918. His wife, MARY ANNE FURLONG nee ROSSITER, born 1840 parish of St Iberius, father JAMES ROSSITER, mother ANNE DANE.