Hi, everyone, Just click on the Irish url, and then put your Irish surnames in the window and see where in Ireland most of the folks with that surname lived. Bobbie > >>Clarification of the Four Courts Fire of 1922. The last issue >[ML 6:23] had an article which might leave the impression that >all the civil records for Ireland burned. This is not the case. >What burned in the tragic Four Courts Fire of 1922 were all the >censuses prior to 1901, all Church of Ireland parish records >that had been sent to Dublin "for safety," and many probate >records. However, the complete civil records for Ireland are >still with us. Civil registration started for all residents of >Ireland in 1864, so marriage, birth, and death records are >available to any researcher from 1864 onwards. For Church of >Ireland ancestors, civil records go back even farther. > >One need not go to Dublin to see these records. All the indices >and many of the full records are available via microfilm order >from the FHL. See the excellent article about these records at: > http://www.rootsweb.com/~irish/igsi_published/cens-sub/ >homabd01.htm [TWO-LINE URL] > >Many researchers are completely unaware of the existence and >ready availability of these records as they send letters to >overworked parish priests in Ireland that often go unanswered. >Granted, in order to break back past 1864 one must turn to >religious records and one must become conversant in both Latin >and Irish in order to be successful. > >A great resource for understanding the variations and Irish >equivalents of surnames is at this IRISH TIMES Web site: > http://scripts.ireland.com/ancestor/surname/index.cfm > K.E. Flynn, CGRS > > _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com