Regarding this: "It is beleived he died in 1875 in America and there was quite an argument over his will."
It may be that Louis didn't leave a Will and his estate was complicated to sort out amongst his relatives in Ireland.
Good point, aghadowey.
heatherwalsh, maybe we can backtrack a little. You mentioned that the elderly family member remembers the will, remembers Coffeyville, Kansas and that Louis passed away in 1875.
Would it be possible to gently ask the family member some questions (not for her to prove her information, but to gather additional clues).
Coffeyville - Does she remember Coffeyville because of the unusual name, because it was mentioned so many times, because another family member visited at some point, because they have a letter sent from there, etc. Perhaps if it is found out why she remembers Coffeyville, that could tell us if he passed away near there, lived there at some point, got married there, etc.
1875 - She wasn't around at that time, so I wonder how she remembers it was 1875...was another family member a certain age when Louis passed away and she's "doing the math"? [Note: When questionning my mum about family members and ancestors, she usually mentions how old she was (or, how old her mum was) when the event happened, so we can then do the math and get an approximate date of the event. Hope that makes sense.
] I wonder how she remembers the date of his passing.
Make his fortune - My guess would be that he arrived in America/Canada after 1850, and possibly after 1860? If he had left earlier, wouldn't he have tried to help his family back home either with sending money back home, or assisting relatives with a passage to North America?
I hope you know that we are asking questions, just to look and find little clues that might help us.
PS Another name change could be Colgan (if that hasn't been already mentioned).
