Hello Angie,
Thanks for joining us here and letting us know that you are interested in learning more about your ancestors!
Before 1864 records were kept in the form of church and parish records, all the surviving records have been sorted into county-based genealogical centres. For County Down, the
Ulster Historical Foundation may be able to help as well as the
local parish church. For County Donegal,
Donegal Ancestry may be a place to look and see if they know the surnames and possible locations.
The
John Grenham website may help when using the surname search option to locate areas to concentrate on.
In 1864 civil registration was introduced in Ireland, which is when we started seeing the formal registration of births, marriages, adoptions, and deaths. These records have been kept at the
General Register Office of Ireland(GRO), through the Irish Genealogy website, to this day.
There is an existing community post on
3 steps to tracing Irish ancestors that may be worth a look at. There are some great resources and tips to be found there too.
Have you any documents such as birth, marriage, and death certificates to help with names and locations?
Martin