Ok, I'll help break the ice. I am currently waiting for some basic information from the Waterford Heritage Center [or whatever it's called ;-)] But in the meantime, I'm wondering how many people are researching the surname McGrath? My grandmother was Mary McGrath, b 1857 in Co. Waterford. She emigrated to the US sometime around 1880 with her siblings: William, Martin, Andrew, Patrick, and Margaret. My mother tells me she once heard that at least one other (perhaps 2) siblings came to the US at the same time but, after a period of time, contact with them was lost, despite the fact that they lived on 15 miles from here. That was a digression. Both parents appeared to have been dead. William and Martin were police officers in New York City. William retired as a deputy inspector in 1928. He died a year later. His wife's given name was Isabella. I don't don't know her maiden name. Patrick settled in Monson, Maine. He was married but I don't know if there were children. Andrew, it seems, from gleanings from old obits I have, lived on Long Island. My grandmother first settled in Hamton, Vermont/Granville, New York where she met and married my grandfather, Thomas Lawrence O'Brien. Their first child, Kathryn Mary, was born in Hampton in 1884. They proceeded to have 8 more. In 1916 they moved to Albany. What I am looking for are: 1) ancestral history in Ireland 2) possible distant cousins in Ireland 3) descendants of Patrick, Andrew, Martin, and Margaret (William's 2 sons appeared to have died childless -- again from obits I have) Maureen O'Brien Albany NY http://www.solas.net/obrien/