Reply #22: To spur you on with checking out the witness, here's my story.

[Gormy Cuss]

My Irish immigrant set met in the U.S. but were both from west Galway, as were most of the Irish in their community. He lived to an old age and much was know about him. She died in her 20s in 1908, so little was known of her.

In his naturalization petition my g-grandfather had two character witnesses named and I noticed that one had the same surname as his wife. By tracking down that character witness (a first cousin, as it turned out) I was able to piece together the story of his wife's side, first by associating relatives in censuses and city directory listings, then by tracing each of their immigration records. All came through Boston and several came after the longer declaration forms came into play so I was able to record the parent's names and residences as well as confirm even more relatives in the states including my g-gmother's older sister with her married name. With that piece of info I was finally able to figure out which immigration record belonged to my g-grandmother. I still don't have a birth record for her but I'm fairly certain where the family lived around the time she was born.