James Rafter

[westcoastie]

Looking for info such as exact birth date/place for James Rafter as well as his parents.
He was born about 1725 in Ireland and probably died sometime after 1798 in Greenwood, Cumberland, Pennsylvania. He was married to Barbara Meily/Meili, born about 1732 in PA.
Thanks!

[KGarrad]

Where have you looked so far?
What was his religious denomination? That's important to know; so you know whether to look in Catholic, Anglican or Presbyterian sources.
Which part of Ireland?

Catholic registers can be found at registers.nli.ie - but you need to know which parish
Many registers can be found at churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords.

[conahy calling]

Very few church records exist for early 1700s.
Do you know his occupation?  Was there coal mining or other mining industry in the area to which he emigrated? 
Do you know where he is buried?   Some emigrants put their former Irish place name on their headstones.  Property and/or house names if any may also give clues.

[conahy calling]

https://www.johngrenham.com/

Although this link is for a pay site, some basic information is free.
It will give you distribution of surname, including distribution at time of "Penders Census" 1659. This was not a full census as we have today, some info on the site will explain its shortcomings.

[Wexflyer]

With that name I would strongly suspect he was from Wexford.