Michael Higgins born 1849, in County Mayo, Ballyhoura, Ireland (according to the 1911 England Census).
He married Ann HIggins around 1885, born in 1864, (maiden name unknown).
They had 14 children, 7 of whom very sadly passed away.
They migrated to the Leeds area of Yorkshire, date unknown.
They were my Great Grandparents and I would dearly love to know more about them. I've come to a 'dead end' on Ancestry.com.au. Thank you.
Do you know much about their emigration? The dates, the reason why they left, who they mighthave travelled with..etc.? Generally more information was given at the port of arrival rather than theport of departure. If you knew which city they arrived at (e.g. Liverpool, Ellis Island), this could be agood place to find more information, and perhaps even find out an exact place of origin. Shippingmanifests can be checked ?which may lead to more clues. The next thing you could do is find the counties and places in Ireland your family names are mostprevalent. Look at the website http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/surname/ and perhapssomething will match some other clue you may have found elsewhere? If nothing turnsup ? it is advisable to try different variations of the spellings of the names. If you have a possiblefirst name you could try the Irish Census 1901, 1911 at www.census.nationalarchives.ie/ or the landvaluation record called Griffiths Valuationhttp://askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xm Also have a look on some of these sites The National Archives of Irelandhttp://www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy1/genealogy-records/introductio… The National Library of Irelandhttp://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 Irelandhttp://www.proni.gov.uk/index/family_history.htm The US National Archives:http://www.archives.gov/ The National Archives Scotland- family history:http://www.nas.gov.uk/familyHistory/
I was wondering if you've considered DNA testing for connecting to other Higgins relatives? Through testing I have been able to narrow my search to the border area between eastern Mayo and Roscommon, but have not yet been able to find a very recent Higgins ancestor. Below is the Higgins yDNA project:
Hello AnnEva. Michael Higgins birthplace looks like Ballyhaunis. He spelt it Ballyhounis. He may have come from Ballyhaunis itself or he might have put it as the nearest town. Wife Ann was from "Oldtown, Sligo".
Did you notice the post by the person researching Leeds Irish? The timescale researched may have been too early for your ancestors.
Do any Yorkshire FH societies have an Irish section?