a visit to cork, ireland
 

We are thing about visiting Cork, Ireland as my husbands mother was born there, and then moved to America. We would be grateful for any information we could find on tracing her great grandmother and relatives maybe still there. The grandmothers name was Mary Josephine O'Dea and her Daughter is Mary Josephine Gene Clark. The daughter was born on October 21,1918 and the family lived on Smith street in Cork. religion was Catholic. <BR>I would like to thank you for any information that you can give me or any contacts that might be available on line. We are planning the trip for about a year from now. Joann

Joann, <BR>Tracing your family is getting easier in Ireland, there are numerous commerical companies who are willing to do it for a fee but I would avoid them as the fact that your husband's mother was born in 1918, nearly going to say this century, means she should be easy to trace. In addition they do what you could do yourself. So in the first instance write to the Parish Priest of the parish she was from. Also contact the local newspaper in the area. (The Examiner - www.examiner.ie or maybe www.irishexaminer.ie - they are in the process of changing their name so the web site might be affected too). Plan a day in Dublin on your holiday and visit the National Library to get further help on tracing your relatives - most of ther birth certs etc are recorded there and/or in the local parish. Get all the old birth certs before you leave for Ireland. Finally contact the Irish Tourist board www.ireland.travel.ie for further advice.

Joann, <BR>Tracing your family is getting easier in Ireland, there are numerous commerical companies who are willing to do it for a fee but I would avoid them as the fact that your husband's mother was born in 1918, nearly going to say this century, means she should be easy to trace. In addition they do what you could do yourself. So in the first instance write to the Parish Priest of the parish she was from. Also contact the local newspaper in the area. (The Examiner - www.examiner.ie or maybe www.irishexaminer.ie - they are in the process of changing their name so the web site might be affected too). Plan a day in Dublin on your holiday and visit the National Library to get further help on tracing your relatives - most of ther birth certs etc are recorded there and/or in the local parish. Get all the old birth certs before you leave for Ireland. Finally contact the Irish Tourist board www.ireland.travel.ie for further advice.

Have you tried this? <BR>http://www.familysearch.org/ <BR>A free service courtesy of the Mormans. They have been merging databases for years for this purpose. When I typed in my name Tourner it pulled up records back to a de Tournay in the 1500s. Fun to play with.

Thank you both for your replys I will try all of the web sites you have listed and will be giving this information to my mother-in-law <BR>