Hi, Jana, I was just reading something you may be interested in. I found it at http://www.rootsweb.com/~irlwat/instruct.htm : United States of America A New York genealogist, B-Ann Moorhouse, made use of federal and state censuses, marriage and death records, naturalization records, directories, passenger lists, probate records, cemetery inscriptions and death notices in newspapers to research 400 Irish-born and their descendants who resided in Brooklyn, New York during the 19th century. Regarding clues to place of origin in Ireland, she found death notices in the local Brooklyn newspapers of the time to be of most value, as they consistently gave the exact place of origin of the Irish-born. In another case, the will of William Ferguson, dated 1873, in mentioning a farm his sister had left to him in Ballygarvey in Rathaspick Parish, County Westmeath, identified the Irish origins of this Brooklyn merchant. The U.S.A. has comprehensive passenger lists for ships arriving from 1820, but, unfortunately they provide only two clues relating to the origin of the emigrant -- the port of departure of the ships and the nationality of the passenger. This is of limited value when it is realized that the vast majority of Iprovide only two clues relating to the origin of the emigrant -- the port of departure of the ships and the nationality of the passenger. This is of limited value when it is realized that the vast majority of Irish emigrants in the 19th ce No official registers of passengers leaving Irish ports in the 19th century were kept except for a brief period, 1803-06. Among the business records of two Londonderry firms, J & J Cooke for the year 1847 to 1867, and William McCorkell & Co., 1863 to 1871, passenger lists recording the residence of 27,495 emigrants in Ireland have survived. The major destinations of the passengers carried by these firms were New York and Philadelphia in the U.S., and Quebec and St. John, New Brunswick in Canada. The Ordnance Survey compilers recorded the names, ages, religion and townland addresses of emigrants for many parishes in Counties Antrim and Londonderry for a few years during the period 1833 to 1839. Again, Canada and the U.S. were the major destinations of these emigrants. These two sources have now been indexed and published by the Genealogical Publishing Company of Baltimore. In Colonial America the Land Patent Books of Virginia, the registers of indentured servants in Pennsylvania, and petitions for land grants in Maryland and South Carolina identify many recently arrived immigrants. A census has been taken every ten years in the U.S. since 1790, and from 1850 the returns provide the country of birth and age of all members of the household, not just the head of household. Tombstone inscriptions should be sought out. In St. Mary's Cemetery in Lee, Massachusetts, the following inscription can be found: "John Dooley, a native of the town of Leabeg, parish of Ferbane, King's County, died August 14 1863 aged 53 years." King's County is new renamed Offaly. Naturalization records are another useful source. On April 1839, for example, John Austin aged 26, giving his place of birth as County Leitrim, declared his intention before Franklin County Court at St. Albans, Vermont to become a U.S. citizen. I don't think our family has checked out the newspaper obit for Patrick. LeotaG@aol.com