O'Donohue

I know my grandfather's name, his birthday, a general location and an aprrox. time that he arrived to Canada.
It's been suggested that he landed here because he paid a debt for the family and got passage to Canada at the end of the repayment.

I know a story that comes with him on his arrival and I know a small bit about his brother.

The issues are that in Alberta alot of stuff is protected information.  It can only be issued to the
next of kin.
I am at loss of where to start,  thing like ancestry .com only work if some has entered the information.
Any Suggestions as to where to start looking.

Hi Tina,

Searching for family members can be both tricky and rewarding at the same time!

There is some excellent resource information here on the community with our Helpful Research Tips post. Please have a look and see if any of the details help you with your search.

The best place to start is always with the paper trail of birth, marriage and death certificates. Then, particular to the island of Ireland, is the date of 1864 when civil registration was introduced in Ireland, all records before this date are held in the counties so you would need to know the location.

If you would like to post the information details here, maybe one of our fellow members or industry partners would be able to assist with some more information too.

We hope this helps and look forward to hearing some more about your grandfather.

Speak soon,

Martin

Thank you for any assistance, I am new to this and am finding myself very frustrated.
John Walter Donohue Nov 12 1911 or 1917
Passed Oct 1997 at what I was told 85 years old in Red Deer Alberta
Married Mae  (unknown kast name but would be 98 yrs old this May 8) (1921. )  Divorced
Children   Patricia 78 yrs ago April 20  Born in Edson, Alberta  I believe all these children were as well.
                 Francis
                 Sheila
                 John Donohue Jr.
Brother to John Sr.   Patrick  (Francis)  was in the Military.
I was told they were pure Irish but may have been born in England.   That's all it states  no city or location.
The story I grew up being told was my great grandparents owed money to someone and John was (given) to pay the debt back.
When the debt was paid he was given a chance to come to Canada.  I was told he was around 16 but could have lied hence the 1911 or 1917 birthday's.   
John and Mae married and Divorced before 1970.
That is all I have.  Any direction would terrific.

Hi Tina,

Many thanks for getting back with some extra information on John!

We have a wonderful Irish Resources article that has lots of handy links that you may now find useful. The link to the National Archives includes information on the 1901 and 1911 census records where you can search for John and see if you can piece together some details.

The General Records Office,GRO, would be another place to look as would some of the Military Archives for information on Patrick.

The process can be frustrating especially when a lot of your information is verbal and it was quite common to alter dates of birth to get passage.

I hope this gives you some inspiration to continue, stick with it as it sounds quite intriguing how he made his journey to Canada!

Martin

Thanks for the links. I took a short look at a few things last night, that may be him. It put him here 1930 at 16 yrs old.  But it has this person as being born in London. So that changes what we were told. The strange thing about this census I located is it states most were born in London but all Irish names to Halifax. Canada. I will keep looking. Thanks for the talk.