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Hi Kim,

     Thanks for the info you posted.  These people are definitely my line.  I did have some early information, on James Muldowney and Mary Garvey, and on Edward/Edmund Muldowney and Mary Butler thanks to a now deceased relative who took three trips to Co. Kilkenny back in the 1990s.
At that time, of course, the records were scarce and far between.

      What came as a surprise was the births of the sibling sisters which is new info.  Also surprising was the districts in which they were baptized. I would be interested to know how you came to find them in Leighlinbridge and Paulstown.  Are these parishes listed on  Irish Ancestors, the old records which came online fairly recently?  If so, I probably will take a look at their registers.

       If the records you have came from another source, please let me know if I can access them as they may be helpful for me in my search for the name McKernan/McKiernan, of which I have a double line in Co. Leitrim and Co. Antrim, particularly pre civil registration.

       Thank you again for your help.

        Mary Eliz.

To: Kinzer:

 Any chance you had the name Dever still in the Philadelphia area as late as 1940?  I'm trying to help a friend find her Dever ancestors. The only info she has is he, Peter, was born in 1938 and is listed as  a foster child with a Donovan family in the 1940 census. She also seems to recall hearing he may have been with a Ginnelly family after that. I'm presuming this could be a misinterpretation of McGinley. She has no information as to whether the Ginnelly family may have adopted him.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Just a thought! When researching have you ever considered looking at the civil registration indexes with variant spellings?

I have the name McKiernan/McKernan, twice in my line, one of whom was from Drumkeeran, the other from another county.  In my research over the years, I have found people with various spellings, with and without the Mc.  If you would like to check this out, there are indexes on the web. Check out this website via a search for Wickham & McKiernan. On this site there is a listing for the name without the Mc.  Personally, I researched the spelling of McKernan and have listings of the indexes for births, marriages and deaths to about 1905.

My line in Drumkeeran starts with Bryan, born in the early 1800s. It also has the names, John, James, and Hugh. 

 If you are looking for birth info on William McLaughlin in Co. Antrim, you might want to try checking your local LDS Family History Center.  The civil registration of all birth, marriages, and deaths began in 1864.  Would suggest you go to your local LDS. Starting with the year of birth you have, 1867, the LDS Film number you will need is #0101044.  Look for him registered in the Ballymoney district.  The index information will a volume and page number. Write them down. Ask the folks at the LDS about ordering the specific film.  If there is more that one William listed, you may have to order more.  I'm not sure of the cost, as I did my family many years ago here in the US.   The final information will not only include place of birth (townland)), but will also include father's name and mother's maiden name.  If you cannot find him in the year 1867, let me know and I will give you other LDS index file numbers that may be helpful.

Good luck.

I suggest you try this website for various spellings of your name:
http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/surname/index.cfm?fuseaction=Go.&UserID=

A lot of names have variants, depending on what the census taker 'heard', as not all folks were literate at the time.  (I've found people with three different spellings in my own line.) Then check the 1911 census online for those spellings:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/

Good luck.