Are you looking for an Irish ancestor who immigrated to the United States? To move your research forward, check for your ancestor in these ten places.

1. At home 

Search attics and basements for mementos such as wedding announcements, labeled family photos, and postcards and letters sent from Ireland. These family documents could give you names of relatives who remained back home. Or they could lead you to other family members and addresses that point you to a hometown in Ireland.

2. In the census

Check census records for birthplaces. You might discover that the ancestor you thought was your family’s first immigrant was actually the immigrant’s child, cousin, or in-law. 

Begin with 20th-century censuses and search for the whole family. Check parents, siblings, and grandparents too. On the records where you find them, always look for the year of immigration. 

If you still can’t find your immigrant ancestor, keep working backward and follow siblings as well. One of them might lead you to the immigrant.

3. With friends and relatives

Have you ever noticed that many people on a single page of a census seem to be born in the same country? These census groupings could be the result of chain migration. Often a single immigrant would arrive in America, land a job, and send word of opportunity back home. Soon more family and friends would immigrate and then send for their family and friends. For family researchers, the ethnic enclaves that you find on a census sheet can provide all manner of clues: maiden names, hometowns, and extended family lines, for example. 

As you identify your immigrant’s neighbors, friends, and relatives, check for them in Member Connect to see who else is researching them. Those researchers might have details you’re looking for.

4. On a ship or at a border crossing 

Irish immigration to the United States peaked with the Great Famine, around 1850. Unfortunately, at that time, ship passenger lists were notoriously stingy with details. But those lists do hold the names of other passengers. And those passengers might have been your ancestor’s friends or relatives. If you’re lucky, those connections might have been fantastic record keepers. 

Snoop around the family lines of those other passengers. See where they went and whether their paths crossed your ancestor’s path again. 

If you can’t find a passenger list for your ancestor at a U.S. port, consider whether they might have landed elsewhere. Sometimes it was cheaper and simpler to travel to the U.S. via Canada. Your Irish ancestor might have crossed the border into the U.S. immediately or even a generation or two later. Check the Ancestry Border Crossings collection.

5. In church 

Churches were the setting for baptisms, weddings, funerals, and more. Church records can be great sources of information about your family history.

To locate church records for your family: 

1. Use census records and city directories to find your ancestor’s address. 
2. Search for surviving churches near the family home. 
3. If you can’t find the church records online, contact the church to ask about records that were created when your ancestor lived in the neighborhood. Also call the local library, which might lead you to other resources you hadn’t considered. 

For more information, see Finding Church Records.

6. On a docket 

Court records aren’t just for the criminally inclined (although those records are full of detail you won’t find elsewhere). Everyday people regularly ended up in legal records too. 

In the Tax, Criminal, Land, and Wills collection on Ancestry, you’ll discover useful records like these:

• Real estate transactions
• Small business dealings
• Records from the emigrant savings bank
• Probates 

Search for all members of the family in the legal records. Read the records carefully and check witness names for possible family members.

7. In the military 

Draft registration cards from World War I and World War II often brim with family details. A card can reveal your ancestor’s hometown, occupation, and name of nearest kin. 

If your ancestor arrived in the U.S. early, check records from the U.S. Civil War: 

• Pensions 
• Muster rolls 
• The 1890 Veterans Schedules 
• Enlistments 

These and other resources might reveal key details about your ancestor.

8. Between the lines 

Family stories might not always be entirely accurate, but they’re often full of names, places, and relationships. These details can help you figure out when your ancestor was in various locations. 

Use these clues to build a time line. Populate it with details from the records you find. 

And enjoy the tales! They give you an idea of the characters in your family tree.

9. Making headlines 

A graduation, an engagement, or even a visitor from out of town might have been big news in your ancestor’s time and place. Look in local newspapers to learn about daily comings and goings as well as bigger events. 

If your family tree is full of city dwellers, ask the city’s library if the area had publications specific to your ancestor’s neighborhood or to small Irish audiences.  

10. At the cemetery 

A simple tombstone might reveal the birthplace or middle name you’ve been trying to locate for years. A nearby tombstone could offer an elusive maiden name. Families often stayed together, even in death, so a trip to the cemetery could take you a long way in your research. You could find distant family lines and other details your ancestor surely would have wanted you to know. 

Start your search at the Ancestry collection for Death, Burial, Cemetery & Obituaries.