Mike I hope you've subscribed by now to the TIGS list - you will find this a helpful and friendly community. As Gerri pointed out to you there are many resources on our website, with frequent updates so worth re-checking periodically for new transcriptions. As you know from your research at the NYS archives, although vital records started in the 1880's, compliance was spotty until after the early 1900's so church records - if you can find them - are invaluable What church might that be? In 1880, the Town of Watervliet included "all of present-day Albany County outside of the city of Albany" (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watervliet,_New_York for more history) and that would include Lisha Kill (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisha_Kill,_New_York) but as you noted, LishaKill is in the western part of Albany County and so possibly you might want to go looking in Schenectady. Harder to find is what RC church might have been closest to Lisha Kill in 1880, with all of the mergers, renames and erased histories, but I think that if Tom Hanley couldn't find anything for you at St Patrick's, Watervliet, the two most likely places geographically would have been - St John the Baptist in Schenectady (founded 1830) six miles from Lishakill - closed now, but institutional records are held at St John the Evangelist (on Union St) (518) 372-3382 or possibly - St Francis de Sales (started 1883) in West Albany (now a Korean worship center). This blog.timesunion.com/armao/727/727/ notes that the parish moved to what is now Christ, Our Light church in Loudonville (518) 459-6635 Another place to look (you don't mention checking this) is the Albany County Hall of Records http://www.albanycounty.com/Government/Departments/AlbanyCountyHallofRecords.aspx I found my town of Watervliet GG-grandfathr's naturalization papers there - but no Ireland county recorded. p.s. there are some Reilly's in St John the Baptist cemetery in Schenectady: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gsr&GSiman=1&GScid=66007&GSfn=&GSln=Reilly On Wed, Oct 22, 2014 at 6:48 AM, Gerri Sherry via < ny-troy-irish-gensoc@rootsweb.com> wrote: > >From Mike Riley, referred to us by his friend Mark Bodnar. I recommended > he peruse our Website to see projects as well as the very helpful resource > guide, and told him how to join our List of helpful knowledgeable people. > Any help we can offer is greatly appreciated, Gerri > > "Since Mark said how helpful the Troy Irish are, I wanted to ask for your > help. I have been to the Troy library more than once looking for my Irish > Riley's. I have tried Watervliet assuming West Troy documents were there. I > have tried NY archive and Dept of Health for death records. I have > contacted all the old Catholic churches in Troy and Watervliet. I have used > Ancestry for a few years. I am lost finding my grandfather's parents. They > are listed on his death certificate and give my grandfather's birth as > 1886. So I had a starting point. The next generation moved to Watervliet or > I assumed they moved from Troy. One of my questions to Mark was what > happened to the town of Watervliet, which held all of Colonie? I see an > address in an 1880 census as Lisa kills in Watervliet. The Riley's lived in > that district. Lisa kills is almost to Schenectady. So if my Riley's lived > in Lisa kills (town of watervliet, where are the records? Colonie, > Schenectady, Watervliet? I have been to city hall and then the historical > society in Watervliet. I have also tried different spellings, looking at my > great grandmother's side for ideas. I got nothing. Lastly I tried to find > them in Rensselaer county cemetery records. Nada." > >