I have worked for over 20 years with very little progress. But I am sure with this connection at rootsweb we Kirwans can work it out. My reason for writing you is that my "Curvin" was found originally in Wauconda, Illinois on the 1850 census. There were listed a John age 75 (?) Mary age 45, Lawrence age 17, Margaret age 16, John age 14 and Mary age 8. I always wondered how they started in the little hick town of Wauconda, I have never found imigration records. By the 1860 census the only one in Wauconda was Lawrence and his wife. The stories always said their were other children in the family. In the 1860 and 70's Margaret and John were down in New Orleans area. The only Kirwan I found on the census was a J.P. Kirwan on the 1840 and 1850 census. Family letters seem to indicate J.P. was a Uncle or ? I have seen family groups of Kirwans out west of Wauconda in your Galena area and wondered if the parents John and Mary continued that direction. It is so amazing how they traveled about so much considering how hard travel would have been. Some of Lawrence's children married and went to Nebraska and that line is being worked on by Ray and Donna Kirwan of Littleton, Colo. By 1880 Margaret and Lawrence's widow were in Chicago, and Mary was in Chicago. After all these years of searching I had begun to think there were no Kirwans. What a surprise!!. I recently found a birth record in Wexford for a John Kirwan and Mary Cullen for a son born in 1827, I do not have proof but it seems like the right family. Since I am new to the Kirwin-L@rootsweb I was not sure if I should send this letter to them for "all" to see or write directly to you. What is the norm???? I think I will send a copy of this to rootsweb.com after all. LittleAud@aol.com