Thread: Help me find my Irish roots

Hello,



i'm trying to find relatives who came from Ireland to Dundee. one in particular is proving really hard to trace. Her name is Maria Drury and she was born around 1840 in Ireland. Her parents were John Drury and Bridget O'byrne (not sure of the spelling of her mothers surname). Another is Owen Keelan who also came from Ireland and was born around the same time, his parents were John Keelen and Bridget Conely.

Can anyone help with my search for my Irish Roots????



fingers crossed, and thanks in advance

Statutory records of births, deaths & marriages started in Ireland in 1864 (1845 for Protestant and Non-Conformist marriages). Prior to that you are heavily dependant on church records, where they exist. (Some have been lost, some are incomplete and some are not yet on line).

To use church records effectively, because there’s no centralised index, ideally you need to know the ancestor’s exact religion, townland and parish in Ireland. (Otherwise it’s a needle in a haystack). Good sources for finding this are poor law applications (Mitchell Library Glasgow) which can show town/townland of origin as well as parents and siblings traveling together. Census returns often include place of birth, and age. Check every census.Sometimes it says more than just Ireland. Look out also for other Irish people nearby in the censuses. Immigrants often settled near people they knew from home. Check military records, gravestones, family bibles, wills and obituaries. Birth certs for some locations (e.g. Scotland) include place of marriage of parents.