Hi,
Thank you for your message. You have some great information here- it is great to see that Laurence prospered despite having been transported!
Unfortunately, it may be quite difficult to find records for Laurence prior to 1800. The reality of finding documentation pertaining to births/baptisms/marriages/deaths in Ireland prior to 1800 ? particularly in rural areas ? is that they simply may not exist. As the Church of Ireland was the official church of the country the bulk of information that does survive for earlier periods is often from these registers.
To check Church of Ireland records check: http://ireland.anglican.org/about/42 and http://www.nationalarchives.ie/.
To see what Roman Catolic records are available in Ferns follow this link:
http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/fuses/rcparishmaps/index.cfm?fuseaction=showidrecords&CityCounty=Wexford&parish=Ferns&churchid=594
Perhaps you could try looking for some newpaper articles on his crime. If you go to http://www.irishnewsarchive.com/ you can do a search of the newspaper archives for free. However, if you want to view the article there is a small fee. I would suggest doing your search in the Freemans Journal and the Leinster Journal as both of these newspapers were founded in the 1700's.
Some other websites which may be helpful 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
Family Search: https://familysearch.org/
Genealogy Links: http://www.genealogylinks.net/uk/ireland/wexford/index.html
Wexford County Library: http://www.wexford.ie/wex/Departments/Library/YourServices/LocalStudies/
I hope that some of these suggestions help.
Kind regards,
Genealogy Support
