Dear Ellis O'Hara,
Thank you for all the information in your replies on the Merrigan family. I will be starting the leg work to look for many of the records you have suggested. I have found quite a bit of information online and from family members who had done similar work in the past -- with conflicting information on the Irish birthplace. But I will keep digging. The family was staunchly Roman Catholic, so I hope to find the Massachusetts records. (Although the Massachusetts town where they lived was flooded to make a reservoir. I hope the records survived!) We'll see. Thanks again, Eileen Gloster