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Genealogy Expert

Kyle J. Betit is a professional genealogist, lecturer and author residing in Salt Lake City, Utah. Kyle specializes in Irish and immigration research. Kyle Betit is Research Director of ProGenealogists, Inc., in Salt Lake City and the author of the Irish Genealogy Pages at http://ireland.progenealogists.com

Questions from Irish Abroad Readers - and Answers from Kyle Betit

by Kyle J. Betit

My Grandmother was listed as an Inmate at age 5 in the 1900 New York City Census with the Institution of Mercy. Both her parents were born in Ireland. But I cannot find where the records for this orphanage are stored.

- Debra in Texas

This institution apparently was run by the Sisters of Mercy, a religious order founded by Catherine McAuley in Dublin, Ireland in 1831. You should contact the archivist of the appropriate US region of the Sisters of Mercy to ask if any records of the orphanage survive. You can find contact information for the Sisters of Mercy in a current Catholic Directory. Most Catholic parishes in the United States have a copy of this directory. You can also find contact information on the web site of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas: http://www.sistersofmercy.org . Most religious orders kept very good records, especially of their members. Mercy International Centre in Dublin, Ireland is the international headquarters of the Sisters of Mercy. Their web site is at http://www.mercyinternational.ie

Great Grandmother is said to have immigrated to the U.S. from Ireland. Have been unable to find her name anywhere, specifically her surname. She would have arrived in the U.S. between 1875 and 1890, as close as I can estimate. She had a heavy accent (Irish brogue, if you will). Unable to find her birth year from records here. There is no cemetery marker. Can you give me any information by her surname Drummond.

- Christine

The Drummond surname is relatively rare in Ireland, although it appears in a number of different counties in the northern, middle, and southern parts of the island. In order to know where you should be looking in Ireland, you will need to identify at least a county of origin for your great grandmother from American records. May I suggest that you take a look at the article "Understanding Irish Research" that I have written online here: http://ireland.progenealogists.com/challenges.htm . You may also be able to find information about the surname Drummond on the Irish Times Irish
Ancestors site at http://www.ireland.com/ancestor/ . Information about ProGenealogists professional research services is available here: http://www.irishabroad.com/yourroots/expertresearch/default.asp .

Is McAleer an unusual name? I grew up in New York City. We had a silly sounding name few other kids had ever heard of but they liked to twist and torment it. I wondered why ours was so different. It had the Mc except in our case it was pronounced Mac, not Mic. We were told by family friends that we should be pleased with the name, Mc reflected some sort of Irish royalty, but McAleer...what was that about? Who ever heard of it? So now that I've found Irishabroad, I also find that nothing has changed...no one knows our name?? Can you help?

- J. McAleer

McAleer is fairly unusual - but there were about 200 families in Griffith's Valuation circa 1860 in Ireland. Almost all of them were in County Tyrone [in the north of Ireland], with a few in the surrounding counties in the historical northern province of Ulster! It's unusual for a name to be that concentrated. You can perhaps find info on the surname at http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/ . County Tyrone has an excellent heritage centre called Irish World that has indexed many of the records from this county. Their web site is at http://www.irish-world.com/ . Some of the data from their database has been included in the Central Signposting Index on the web site http://www.irishgenealogy.ie . You will see that many McAleers are listed.

My great-grandfather came from County Leitrim in 1870. However I can find no information about where he might have left Ireland from. I think if I had a logical guess about that I could then start looking for ships that might have left that port. He came into New York City and landed at Castle Gardens, I know that much, but again have no idea where he might have left from or the ship.

- Tim

Your ancestor could have left from several Irish ports, or from Liverpool England. The passenger list showing his arrival at New York City should indicate what ports the ship sailed from and stopped at. However, there were no outgoing passenger departure lists from Ireland in this time period. Data from the New York City (Castle Garden) passenger lists (1830-1892) is now available free online at http://www.castlegarden.org/ . Images of original passenger lists from Castle Garden may be accessed online at http://www.ancestry.com (a subscription database). You might also be interested in the article on County Leitrim published on the IrishAbroad web site: http://www.irishabroad.com/yourroots/expert/countyleitrimresearch.asp .

My father was born in County Galway, Ireland, in 1899. He emigrated to New York City in 1921 or so and married my mother. Will I have a problem getting Irish citizenship because all my ancestors were born before the Irish Republic was formed?

- Ellen

No, the fact that your father was born before the Irish Republic was formed does not present any problem for you to get Irish citizenship. For citizenship purposes in the Republic of Ireland, it does not matter where on the island of Ireland he was born (whether that place is now in the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland) or when he was born. In Irish law, the children of a person born in Ireland are considered Irish citizens. I would recommend looking at the web site of the Irish Embassy in Washington, DC, for further details: http://www.irelandemb.org .

Can anyone advise me if there are any Lusk names in Ireland. My 5th grandfather came to America in 1700's from Dublin with his family. I would like to contact some Lusks if there are any there.

- W. Lusk

There were indeed a few Lusks in Ireland in the mid-1800s, and there are some now. It is a pretty rare name in Ireland. It was most numerous in County Antrim (which is now in Northern Ireland) but there were others in the area around Dublin. You can access phone directories for the Republic of Ireland and for Northern Ireland online at http://www.infobel.com/teldir/ . For more information on Irish genealogy research, including professional help, see the ProGenealogists Irish Web Pages at http://ireland.progenealogists.com .

These questions from readers have been edited for this article. If you have questions for Kyle Betit about Irish genealogy, please send them to roots@irishabroad.com . We can't promise to answer all questions in this column, but we will do our best to help you!