I believe my great grandfather, Michael Dillon came from Galway. He immigrated to Chicago, Illinois in the 1860's. He may have had a brother named Patrick. He died in the U.S. in 1900 after fathering 8 children. He was a Roman Catholic. Maybe if I could find a parish in Galway where many Dillon's were from that would be a place to begin my search. He married in the U.S. a woman named Margaret Hart from Mayo.
Hello Michael,
My name is Paul. If you are looking for a parish in Galway your best bet would be to look up Roman Catholic Church registers which were microfilmed in the 1950s and the 1960s by the National Library of Ireland. 1066 out of the 1153 registers were microfilmed. Permission is required for access to some records in the National Library. The Public Records of Northern Ireland carried out its own microfilming project. The records are the same as those held by the National Library. Some records are later in date. The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints have an extensive collection of microfilmed parish registers. It holds 398 of the 1,153 parishes in Ireland. Here are a few websites that offer access to the records:
Hope this is of some help to you.
Yours sincerely,
Paul Dwyer
Ancestry.com has a database for Chicago Irish 1875-1925 where you might find obituaries with Ireland townlands. I found my Great grandmothers obituary from 1900 on it. Here's the link. I'm not a member at this time. You might be able to do a free trial to check it out.
http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=3524&cj=1&netid=cj&o_xid…