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Hi,

Thank you for your message.

Civil registration began officially in Ireland in 1864 so you should be able to find their birth/marriage records in civil records. This will give you information on their parents. Civil records are available from the General Register?s Office in Dublin. Here is their website:

http://www.groireland.ie/research.htm

You can search the indexes to these records up to 1958 online at:

https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1408347

You can also look in church records for these records and records pertaining to their parents.

Most Catholic records are held locally so you may need to write to the local parish priest for possible assistance. One website that you may find useful is the Irish Times where they give an overview of what records are available in specific parishes. It also shows you where copies of the records are available. For galway City  parish, follow this link:

http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/fuses/rcparishmaps/index.cfm?fuseaction=showlikerecords&CityCounty=Galway%20city&parish=Galway

As you can see from the above link there are copies available from Galway Family History Society West. Here is their email if you would like to contact them, however a fee may apply.:galwaywestroots@eircom.net

Have you tried looking in the 1901/1911 census records for information? These are available online at:

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

To go back further you could also check for record of the family in the land records pertaining to Ireland in the 19th century. 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/

Some other websites that you may find useful are:

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.

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

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

Galway City Archives: http://www.galway.ie/en/Services/Library/Archives/

I hope some of this is helpful.

Kind regards,

Genealogy Support