McGuire/ County Sligo

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Bridget Canniff on September 10, 2010 at 2:27pm

Hi Cecilia,

If you have access to Ancestry.com, you could try searching for them in the "Irish Relatives and Friends" database (see info below), a listing of advertisements for lost people published by the Irish-American newspaper in New York. It was originally published as a book that you might be able to get from your library. My ggg-grandmother's family found her brother this way after the rest of the family arrived in the US in 1873; her brother had been in America since 1869 and they hadn't heard from him in years, but then they all appear in the same Massachusetts town from the 1880 census onwards.

Have you tried searching for the brothers' immigration records (though early records don't have many personal details), or looking for James in Census records (though with a relatively common name and without a year of birth, it may be impossible to find him)? I assume you've already looked for Michael and Catherine and their children. What about familysearch.org and beta.familysearch.org? I know that at least some of the early County Sligo records are on there.

Best of luck,
Bridget

Ancestry.com. Irish Relatives and Friends [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006.
Original data: DeGrazia, Laura Murphy. Irish Relatives and Friends. Baltimore, MD, USA: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2001.

About Irish Relatives and Friends

The Irish-American, a weekly newspaper published in New York City for the edification of the Irish immigrant population, began publication in August 1849, at the height of the great exodus from Ireland. Besides news items of interest to the Irish community, the paper ran a popular classified section for people seeking information on relatives and friends who had recently taken up residence in the U.S. These classified ads appeared in a column entitled "Information Wanted," and because of their genealogical value they have been transcribed in their entirety for this publication. The ads are of particular importance to the genealogist because they usually indicate the Irish county, townland, or parish from which an immigrant came, and virtually all Irish genealogical research is based on the identification of these jurisdictions.

In addition to naming former places of residence in Ireland, the ads often name places of residence in the U.S., provide names and relationships of family members, give dates of departure from Ireland and arrival in the U.S., indicate ships' names, and sometimes specify ages and occupations. To help the researcher use this data efficiently, the compilers have assembled five separate indexes: Personal Names, Irish Place Names, United States Place Names, Other Places, and New York City Streets. Altogether, some 8,500 names appear in the Personal Names index alone; and there are references to several thousand place names.

Permalink Reply by Cecilia Eppink on September 10, 2010 at 3:19pm

Thanks, Bridget!

I have not had any luck finding my great grandfather's brother, even though I have a million more resources than my great grandfather had.

I knew of five children for Michael and Catherine McGuire and was surprised by a census record that said "Mother of 10, 5 living". That sent me off on a hundred searches. I found three named brothers for my grandfather, including a twin brother. I also found two unnamed stillborns, a brother and a sister. I still have one more to go. The strangest thing is that I have not been able to find an exact birthdate for his sister, Catherine, who was born in 1876 and died in 1955. Her record never comes up. There is another Catherine McGuire born in Cleveland in 1876 but she died shortly thereafter. I can't believe that she is not there.

I will try your suggestion on finding Michael's lost brother..

Thanks, again!

Permalink Reply by GOPI KANTA GHOSH on September 11, 2010 at 9:24am

Please write complete story...it will be wonderful creation of story of migration...

Permalink Reply by Cecilia Eppink on September 11, 2010 at 12:56pm

That's funny you would say that. Whenever I tell the story someone says I feel like I am watching a movie or a mini series. Maybe some day.............