• I maintain an email file of those few who have contacted me with 'Nix' roots in Ireland and the northeastern US and eastern Canada.  I learned after being on 'Nix-L' on rootsweb and similar lists that less than 10% of the participants had either.  The 'closest' to date is from Framingham MA but to date not with any link to Ireland. A neice of my  uncle Edmund's late wife, Alice Shaw Nix emailed me from Revere, MA in 2001.
• Excellent tips, abbreviation, email details, etiquette, etc advice from Louie R. Mills can be read at his Welcome to Newbies web page.
• My grandfather, Patrick Francis Nix arrived at Providence, Rhode Island, on May 5, 1877 at age 16.
• The following names are those of witnesses to my grandparent's marriage my grandfather's naturalization and my father's baptism, all in Providence Rhode Island between 1891 and 1894. As of March 2000, these names are 'new' to us.

Mary Ann Crocke (sp?, Clarke?, Crocker?)

Maria Healy

Frederick McNamby

the following two are signatures, sponsors for naturalization.

Johnny (that is clear) Grainoe, only the 'oe' is clear, the G is illegible or not there.

All guesses, Erin Army is the first impression, given letter height, length of name and the E. other possibilities, Erin Carty, Sinon Carty, Erin Neary.

I acquired a copy of my grandfather's Arlington Advocate obituary via Jennifer DeRemer, genealogy staff at the Robbins Library in Arlington. The writeup listed three pallbearers whose names also are new to us. Ginny Chung did a census lookup for me, CD; 1900 Census Index: CT, MA, ME, NH, RI and VT, 1900, as follows:

Michael Donnellen, no listing

McCormack, William State : MA


County : Suffolk
Location : 5th Ward Boston
Roll Number : 677, Page : 206

Shaughnessy, Martin State : MA


County : Suffolk
Location : 7th Ward Boston
Roll Number : 678, Page : 96

Shaughnessy, Martin H. State : MA


County : Worcester
Location : Leominster
Roll Number : 693, Page : 25

• Regarding ship arrivals, primarily in New York. They are name indexed for the periods 1820-1846 and 1897-1947. The years 1847-1896 are not indexed apparently due to the New York port period experiencing 2/3rds of all U.S. arrivals in that time frame. The ship manifests which do exist are very slowly being transcribed and indexed by volunteers. Most captains made up manfiests but they were not required by law to turn them in. Many manifests only counted the number of passengers and their country of origin.
• Irish Census census records were lost in a fire in 1922 except for 1901, 1911 and some fragments of earlier ones.
• Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland are another source of data. I only know there are volumes per Church of Ireland parishes, probably not indexed by surname. I only know they exist for the 1830's.
• Surnames of Ireland by Robert Matheson from 1890 birth records. Most frequent surname occurring in a county, sorted by surname. In my case, Forde is in Galway. My north central Clare, 'Forde' ancestors records are possibly in the RC Parish in Gort, Galway. Kane is Londonderry, adding more 'dispersion' to my 'Kane' in Ballymote, Sligo. Nix and Ballantine are not listed.
• Forde, Belmont Massachusetts.  My brother relates how our mother said that a Joe Forde attending Belmont High School about the time my sister, Class of '44 and my brother Class of '47, might have been a cousin. 
  
• I have searched many ships manifests and noted that many of this era were lost. My grandmother arrived in NYC by boat from Ireland about 1888 and those records have also been lost or unfruitful to date. I have subscribed at times to the Rootsweb 'Ships list' and 'emigration ships' from GENWEB and see a great big 'gap' in manifest preservation in the time frame I believe my grandparents emigrated. I suspect my grandfather's port of arrival may have been Quebec, New Brunswick or most anywhere on the east coast, taking a train to Providence Rhode Island. There were also frequent 'coastal packets' in those days, between south of Boston and New York.
• Anna Jane (Ballantine) Nix emigrated to NYC in about 1886, died in 1958 in Coral Gables, Florida. I have done some searching of New York City for her address or names of possible relations on a site labeled Genealogy Exchange and Surname Registry which was on 'www.genexchange.com',now a deadlink. It was a volunteer effort with synopsis of account information of 19th century depositers in the New York Emigrant Savings Bank. 70% of the depositors were from Ireland and the placename origins of many were listed.
• Patrick and Annie Nix lived at 84 Borden, Providence, R.I. in October 1894 when my father was born. I presume the 1900 census showed them living at Douglas Place, Quincy, Massachusetts. Most of the US 1890 cenus was deliberately destroyed after being damaged in a 1920 fire in Washington, D.C.. Sometime after 1903 they moved to Hardwick, Vermont, ending up in Arlington, Massachusetts for the 1920 census.
• Locating church and local government records for family baptisms, marriages and deaths.
• My record search: Catholic marriage by Rev. Thomas F. Doran, pastor at the Church of St. Peter & Paul, High Street, corner of Fenner, Providence, Rhode Island of Patrick F. Nix and Anna Jane Ballantyne, June 12, 1893
• Since the record is now 100 years old it was necessary for me to go to the R.I. State Archives, 337 Westminster St. Providence, R.I. 02903. I called 401 222-2353 (normal business hours m-frid, 8:30-4:30 pm EST) and wrote my request by snail mail, receiving additional information promptly by email.
• The Diocese of Providence historical record of the eras of Bishops Thomas Hendricken and Matthew Harkins indicates that the Catholic churches in Providence were identified as French-Canadian, Italian or Irish in the 1880-90 era.
• In February 2000 Veronica Lima, Clerk Archives for the Diocese of Providence sent me a large packet of Catholic and state addresses and sources in response to my query on the marriage of my grandparents in 1893. On March 13, 2000 I received copies of Certificate of Marriage of Patrick Nix and Annie Ballantine and a Certificate of Baptism for my father, Joseph P. Nix from the Rector of the Cathedral of St. Peter & Paul.
• Patrick became a naturalized U.S.citizen on December 26, 1891 per the copy of his 1891 Naturalization Certificate which I obtained from NARA, Waltham, Massachusetts.
• FIVE YEAR RULE for immigrants to prove they have lived in a county in the U.S. should not be used to assume they arrived at least five years earlier. The requirement could be waived by having others vouch for them and some have naturalization dates within months of their ship arriving. Requesting citizenship was done via filing a Petition for Naturalization, or Declaration of Intent. Normally after five years, the petitioner could become a citizen if not convicted of a crime and had sworn an oath to support the Constitution of the United States before a County or Federal Court officer.
• I have virtually nothing to work on regarding the Nixes five year or so stay in Hardwick Vermont. I have a 'clue' that there was an Irish Roman Catholic parish, possibly St. Sylvesters in Graniteville, Vermont in the hills above Barre and about 25 miles south of Hardwick. Possibly that was the seat of the archdiocese.
• Website resources.
• Rhode Island Resources at RootsWeb
• Rhode Island USGenWeb Project
• I am not coming up with the name Nix associated directly with Ennis but my brother acquired some hearsay in Ireland that 'the Nix's are involved in sports', so I checked some on line sources and in January 2000 wrote an email 'letter to editor' of an Ennis area sports journal.
• Ireland's 18th and 19th century vital records practices involve several administrative jurisdictions, generally listed by province and county.
• I have tentative information from the Griffiths Valuation of Ireland information on my CLARE and SLIGO pages.
• Another source of "Irish Place Names" is a book by that title by Deidre and Laurence Flanagan, Gill and Macmillan, Dublin, 1994. It explains the naming composition of the Irish towns. Some of the more common name elements are:
• Kil(l) - church or wood
• Bally - homestead or small town
• Knock - hill or sometimes mountain
• Beg - small
• Slieve - mountain
• Lough - lake
• Drum - ridge
• Dun - fort
• Inch, Inish and Island - Island
• For search in Massachusetts here are some suggestions:
• The Irish Ancestral Research Association (TIARA)- in Sudbury, Mass.(where we lived, 1960-1962)
• BostonStatesindex
• Massachusetts Information and Library Network
• MassHome Directory of Massachusetts Newspapers