Looking to find information on my great grandfather Joseph Patrick Sheehan born 16 March 1882. Emigrated from Queenstown, Ireland on 16 Oct 1899 to New York. Thank you!
Hi Mary,
Thank you for your message.
Civil registration began in Ireland in 1864 soyou should be able to find Patrick?s birth record here, and maybe his parents marriage record.. Civil records are available from the General Register?s Office in Dublin. Here is their website:
http://www.groireland.ie/research.htm
You can search the indexes to these records online at:
https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1408347
You could also check in church records for information. Most Catholic records are held locally so you may need to write to the local parish priest for possible assistance. One website that you may find useful is the Irish Times where they give an overview of what records are available in specific parishes. It also shows you where copies of the records are available. For Newcastle West parish, follow this link:
Most surviving Church of Ireland records are still held by the local clergy, although some are in the National Archives of Ireland and others are in the Representative Church Body Library in Dublin. Here are their websites: http://www.nationalarchives.ie/ and http://ireland.anglican.org/about/42
Lists of these surviving registers can also be found at the National Library of Ireland.
Have you tried looking in the 1901/1911 census records to see if you can find his family that remained behind? http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/
Some other websites that 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
Genealogy links: http://www.genealogylinks.net/uk/ireland/limerick/index.html
Limerick City Library: http://www.limerickcity.ie/Library/LocalStudies/
Familysearch: www.familysearch.org
I hope some of this is helpful. Please be patient - as our programme has only begun to rollout across the island of Ireland and volunteers in some areas may not yet be organized.
Kind regards,
Genealogy Support