Hi Bill,
Thank you for your message.
Unfortunately, it may be difficult to find William?s ancestors as the reality of finding documentation pertaining to births/baptisms/marriages/deaths in Ireland prior to 1800 ? particularly in rural areas ? is that they simply may not exist. Also, please note that the Church of Ireland was the official church at the time so any records that do survive are usually from these registers.
For information on Church of Ireland registers check http://ireland.anglican.org/about/42 and http://www.nationalarchives.ie/.
If you would like to see what Catholic records are available in the area follow this link:
http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/fuses/rcparishmaps/index.cfm?fuseaction=showidrecords&churchid=703&CityCounty=Carlow&CityCounty=Carlow&parish=Dunleckney
You could also try searching for the family at https://familysearch.org/ This is a huge genealogical database compiled by the Church of the Latter Day Saints, you may ale to find record of some of William?s family here.
Some other websites which you may find useful are:
The National Archives of Ireland http://www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy1/genealogy-records/introduction/
The National Library of Ireland http://www.nli.ie/en/family-history-introduction.aspx
The National Archives UK ? genealogy search: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/looking-for-person/
The Public Records Office of Northern Ireland http://www.proni.gov.uk/index/family_history.htm
Genealogy links: http://www.genealogylinks.net/uk/ireland/carlow/index.html
Another suggestion would be to contact the Local Studies Department of Carlow Library for possible assistance. Here is a link to their webpage:
http://www.carlowlibraries.ie/localhistory.html
I hope that this is helpful. Best of luck with your research.
Kind regards,
Genealogy Support
