This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Lyons, Raftery Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/WMB.2ACE/4843.1.1.1 Message Board Post: No I do not live in St. Louis. I am in New Hampshire. My only connection to St. Louis is just a possible one not a definite one. I've been trying to learn more about Catherine (LYONS) RAFTERY of St. Louis. She married Lawrence RAFTERY and resided in St. Louis until her death in 1906. What interests me are these coincidences. 1. A LDS listing shows that Catherine (LYONS) RAFTERY was born in 1837 in Ireland. My Catherine LYONS was born in Ireland in 1837-38. 2. A number of the postings on Ancestry.com and elsewhere suggest that many members of the RAFTERY family came to the U.S. from Co. Roscommon, Ireland through New York and New England and scattered. My Catherine LYONS emigrated with her family to New York from Co. Roscommon, Ireland in 1839 and moved to Massachusetts in 1845. After the 1850 census she disappears. So where did she go? St Louis maybe? I have good information that suggests her father and mother split. Her father moved to Indiana in 1852. Maybe she went with him. Catherine was still a toddler when she came to America but her parents might have been acquainted with the RAFTERY family, especially if they both came from Co. Roscommon. Certainly a name such as Catherine LYONS is common among the Irish but this is the only one I've found with a similar birth year and place of birth. Like I said, it is only a possibility but it is one that I have been trying to research. If I could review Catherine RAFTERY's May 26, 1906 obituary in the St. Louis Post Dispatch, it might show the names of her parents as James and Catharine LYONS. Granted I could write the St. Louis city clerk but I hate to spend money on a copy of a death certificate that is immaterial to my research. I appreciate you contacting me with your information. Thanks.