I have always been fascinated with local history. Because I live in an area that once contained a population that was 80% Irish or of Irish descent, and am of Irish descent myself, it was not too much of a leap to try to research my Irish roots. The records on this web site began with my own research and expanded as I began to fill notebooks of records from various Irish parishes in search of the origins of friends and acquaintances.

I've begun with Kilmoremoy Parish of Ballina in County Mayo because this seemed to be the center of a number of queries. My own Gallagher family claimed to be from Ballina but they do not appear in the records. Since the Irish often gave the name of the nearest market town when asked about their homes, it is likely that they actually came from one of the smaller parishes in the area. 

Crossmolina is another parish that has connections to my family. While I do have a number of records from there, I am concentrating on completing the Kilmoremoy baptisms, marriages and obituaries before I complete the Crossmolina records. I also have records from Addergoole and Kilfian which I will be posting as time allows.

My reason for posting all of these records is to give family researchers a starting point if their families came from Mayo. I will continue to separately list the names that appear in the records. Some may have been from out of the parish, but if the researcher is looking for a particular name, the lists will help.

Here and there, I've tried to insert a little bit of Irish history. Many of our ancestors spoke little about their homes in Ireland. For them, leaving must have been traumatic since they knew they most likely would never see parents or siblings again in this lifetime. Just an inkling of their history might add to an understanding of what they endured and and how much courage it took to come here.