In a message dated 2/5/99 5:11:36 PM Pacific Standard Time, jtierney@nponline.net writes: << For sundry reasons, our ancestors often migrated with relatives, friends, religious groups, etc. >> Hi Jane and welcome to the List. Yes this List is made up of a special group of people. Your comment about ancestors travelling in groups is quite valid. Once I learned this and started making note of neighbors of my ancestors it certainly moved my research along. Whether I was looking line by line at a census record, deed indexes or whatever, once I started finding the neighbors I knew I was close to finding my ancestors too. So many of my female ancestors married the neighbor's sons. Keeping this thought in the back of my mind has never led me wrong. In the future I hope to use it to determine where exactly in Ireland some of them hailed from. Regards, Catherine