Hi Sandy,
The Roman Catholic church records for Dromard and Skreen date from 1823 for baptismal records and 1817 for marriage records.These are available from the National Library of Ireland, Pos. 4229, or the Church of Latter Day Saints ref. no. 0926025. If you have any difficulty, you could write to the parish priest for more assistance.
The General Register Office (GRO) has civil records dating from 1864. You can find this here: http://www.groireland.ie/research.htm
Sponsors could be family members, friends or neighbours. Perhaps someone in the area will know of the families still living in the community.
Don't forget to check alternate spelling of the names when researching, such as Finegan, etc.
You could also try checking the land records called the Tithe Applotment Books (1823-38) or the later Griffth's Valuation (1848-64). Griffith's is freely available here: www.askaboutireland.com or here: www.failteromhat.com Failte Romhat has lots of other useful links you could try looking at.
It's wonderful that you are planning to come to Ireland in June. Ireland Reaching Out is hosting its Week of Welcomes during the last week of June! Check our website for more information. If you can't make it, maybe you know someone who can! Otherwise contact us anyway, and we will try to put you in contact with people from the area if we can.
Please make sure you link anyone else in your family who is interested in their Irish heritage to our site - and indeed anyone else you know of Irish heritage.
Kind regards,
Sinead Cooney
Genealogist (Ireland XO)
