While these names that I have been posting are from declarations filed in Rensselaer Co Justice Court, they are not just from Rensselaer county. So far I have found the following places of residence: Troy, Saratoga Co., Lansingburgh, Rensselaer Co., West Troy, Washington Co., Albany Co., Bennington VT, Brunswick, Hoosick, Massachusetts, Williamsport PA, New York City, Green Co., Rockland Co, Schenectady Co, Williamtown MA and Warren RI. While the info I am posting includes only name, age and county in Ireland where born, these declarations also include: port where emigrated from; date arrived in USA (later ones give port of arrival), current residence and date of declaration. Many also have the person's signature which if it is your ancestor it is nice to have. Check this site to see my gggrandfathers's: http://www.connorsgenealogy.com/troy/troynaturalization.html Pouring over these records it is obvious that many Irish emigrated to Troy during the Famine years, mainly because they coincided with much work available in the many shirt and collar factories, not to mention the great iron mills in the area. The Irish went were the work was, just like recent immigrants do. They also moved when the work disappeared. These particular declarations may be the only clue where you will find the county in Ireland where your ancestor was born and that is why so are so important to your research. I am posting these later with fuller information on the Rensselaer County website but my main reason for doing this also on the NY mailing lists is after reading many inquiries on what to do next, or how can I find where in Ireland they came from, is to show you how valuable these records are. Ten years ago while in Troy I looked at the books these records were recorded in over 150 years ago. At the front of the book, and also on the film, is an index. Each letter of the alphabet has a couple of pages and as the declarations were filed in court, the clerk wrote the last name in the index with the page it appeared in the book. Well, when I did my research, I consulted the book's index for my four surnames and their variant spellings and then checked the pages for the entries. Yesterday, I found John Flinn (one of my surnames) in the book but not in the index! So a word of wisdom, don't go by the index only, check every page. PS Yes, sorry to say not all declarations in other areas have all this interesting info but you'll never know until you look. -- Pat Connors, Sacramento CA http://www.connorsgenealogy.com All outgoing mail virus free, scanned by Norton 2002