Hi Jimmy,
Thank you for your message.
Do you know the family?s religious denomination? Church records are one of the main genealogical sources for Ireland in the 19th century as civil registration didn?t begin until 1864.
Most Catholic records are held locally. One website which may be helpful to you is the irishtimes where they give an overview of what records are available in specific parishes. If they were from the Dundalk area they most likely belonged to Dundalk Roman Catholic parish. To see what records are available there follow this link:
http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/fuses/rcparishmaps/index.cfm?fuseaction=showidrecords&CityCounty=Louth&parish=Dundalk&churchid=216
If the family followed Church of Ireland you can get information on records at http://ireland.anglican.org/about/42 and http://www.nationalarchives.ie/. The Anglican Record Project is has created an index to their records: http://ireland.anglican.org/cmsfiles/pdf/AboutUs/library/AngRecord/bunclodyunionindex.pdf
Have you tried looking for the family in the land records pertaining to Ireland in the 19th century? There are two:
The Tithe Applotment Books (1823-1838) found at http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/home.jsp
and Griffith?s Valuation (1848-1864) found at http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/
Have you tried searching for family members on https://familysearch.org/ ? This is a huge database of genealogical records that have been complied by the Church of the Latter Day Saints.
Another good site is http://www.genealogylinks.net/uk/ireland/louth/index.html Here they give a list of genealogy links that are relevant to Louth.
Local libraries can also be good sources of information. Here is a link for Louth library
http://www.louthcoco.ie/en/Services/Library/Genealogy-Research-Sources/
You could also try searching for family members that remained in Ireland in the 1901/1911 census records here:
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/
Some other websites that may be helpful to you 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
Irish Times: http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/surname/
Genealogy Toolkit: http://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/index.html
I hope that some of these links are useful to you and help you get started on your family tree. You can download a family tree template under the resources section of our website. Best of luck!
Kind regards,
Genealogy Support
