Winifred NEALIS

Hi Tony,

Thank you for your message.

Unfortunately, it may be difficult to find information without a more specific place of origin. Most Irish record sources- church records, land records, census records- are based on specific locations. Until you know a more specific location, preferably a parish or placename, it may be difficult to do anything more with these records.

There are some places where you can search online, however it may be difficult to discern whether the results are relevant to your family or not without more information:

www.familysearch.org has a huge database of genealogical records including some church records for Ireland.

www.rootsireland.ie have a large collection of Irish Church records, however you have to pay to use this site.

You could try looking up the surnames in the land records to see aht parishes it was most prevalent in.  There are two:

The Tithe Applotment Books (1823-1838) found at http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/home.jsp

and Griffith?s Valuation (1848-1864) found at http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/

Have you tried looking into Winifred's emigration? Sometimes more infomation can be found at the port of arrival rather than that of departure. You may be lucky and find a place name here. The University of Woolongong has produced, on microfiche, a complete index and transcript of all information concerning immigrants of Irish origin recorded on ships' passenger lists between 1848 and 1867 for New South Wales. These are useful for finding out an exact place of origin as well as parents' names. The Public Record Office of Victoria has good online databases of settlers at www.prov.vic.gov.au Otherwise, other records may be found in the Colonial Office Papers of the UK National Archives, class reference CO 201. This class contains a wide variety of records, including petitions for assisted passages, emigrants' lists, records of emigrants on board ship, petitions from settlers for financial assistance and much more.

It may be an idea to contact the Clare County Library- they have an excellent local studies department and may be able to give you some advice or let you know what records are available for the county. Here is their webpage: http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/library/local-studies/locstudi1.htm

Some other websites that you may find useful are:

The National Archives of Ireland http://www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy1/genealogy-records/introduction/

The National Library of Ireland http://www.nli.ie/en/family-history-introduction.aspx

Irish Times: http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/index.htm

Genealogy Links: http://www.genealogylinks.net/uk/ireland/clare/index.html

Irish Genealogy tool-kit: http://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/index.html

Remember to post any new information that you find here. The more information you post, the more likely it is that one of our volunteers will be able to advise or assist you. Also include information concerning which sources you may have already used so others may further your search.

Kind regards,

Genealogy Support

Hi Emma,

Thank you for your reply; I will chase up your suggestions, starting with the Clare Co library.  Unfortunately it appears that the records of Sligo orphanage were destroyed, and no further information is available from her landing documents in Australia about her origin or parentage as she was orphaned.  Also any word-of-mouth information she may have given has vanished over several generations here.

kind regards and thanks again,

Tony