in search of great grandmother and great grandfather

Dear Dennis

Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out and apologies for the delay in replying to your message.

Unfortunately, it may be difficult to find information without a more specific place of origin. Most Irish record sources- church records, land records, census records- are based on specific locations. Until you know a specific location within Ireland, preferably a parish or placename, it may be difficult to do anything more with these records.

Do you have any documentation pertaining to Michael and the family that mentions any place names at all? This can include wills, marriage/death records, census records, letters, diary entries etc. Have you tried searching Ancestry.com for any mention of your ancestor?s name in member family trees or messages? Ancestry is also hosting ?webinars? on their site. The latest focuses on how to use Irish records when you do not know where your ancestor is from.

There are some places where you can search online, however these websites do not have complete collections and many do not cover the period after 1900:

www.familysearch.org has a huge database of genealogical records including some church records for Ireland.

http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/ have begun a project to upload Irish church records to their site free of charge. However, so far only Counties Dublin, Kerry, Carlow and parts of Cork have been covered.

Other important sources include the Tithe Applotment Books and Griffith?s Valuation:

Tithe Applotment Books (1823-1837): http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/index.jsp

Griffith?s Valuation (1847-1864): http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/

Some other websites that may be helpful are:

The National Archives of Ireland: http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/  you can search the 1901/1911 Census on the National Archives page too

The National Library of Ireland: http://www.nli.ie/en/family-history-introduction.aspx

Remember to post any new information that you find here. The more information you post, the more likely it is that one of our volunteers will be able to advise or assist you. Also include information concerning which sources you may have already used so others may further your search.

Best of luck with your search

Clare Doyle

Genealogy Support  

Dear Denis,

Griffiths Valuation (circa 1850) lists 595 households in Ireland renting from people whose landlord is called Joy or whose name is Joy, 87 in Kerry 

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml?action=doNameSearch&Submit.x=27&Submit.y=11&Submit=Submit&familyname=joy&firstname=First+Name&baronyname=&countyname=&unionname=&parishname=

This gives you some idea of the scale of the search with the information you have given us.

I would urge you to search historic newspapers for an obit for Michael and his wife, trade associations/charitable organisations he belonged to or any naturalisation records for him or any of his family. Sometimes the church marriage record gives a townland name or parents name.

Does the US census for the relevant years tell you anything more? My internet signal is weak today and will not hold up for a census search

Let us know how you fare

Best wishes

Martine