My great-great grandfather William Pauls was born in Limerick in Ireland in 1852. I tried to trace him through the Dublin records office but they have absolutely no information on anyone named Pauls. Unfortunately many records were destroyed in a fire in the 1920's. The assistant at the records office suggested William's father might have been a soldier attached to Limerick barracks so could have been English, Scottish or whatever. There was a Huguenot community in central Ireland so possibly of French origin ? I also know of a French Canadian family named Pauls.