How to Locate Someone in Ireland
Many people in America are interested in finding people in Ireland. Often an interest in genealogy leads Americans to look for relatives in Ireland to try to expand their family tree or try to get a better understanding of their ancestral homeland. Others may be searching for long-lost friends. Whatever your reason, finding someone in Ireland can be a long and tricky process. Here are some tips to get you started.
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Instructions
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Conduct some basic Internet searches for the person you're looking for. Try www.google.com and www.pipl.com. If you don't have enough information to locate the person you're looking for, try to find other clues, such as a city or county they may live in or the name of a close relative.
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Do some research to find out what county the person you're looking for is most likely from. A good starting point for this is www.censusfinder.com/irish_surnames.htm. This site lists the most common surnames found in each county in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. If you don't know where the person you're looking for comes from, this will give you a good start.
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Try the resources available at www.eircomphonebook.ie and 118.ie. Use the residential finder on each of them. Both of these will request a name and a location. First try the name of the county you found in the previous step. If that is unsuccessful, try the names of the larger cities and towns in and near that county.
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If you're still not having any luck, try looking on the sites listed in the previous step using the main cities of Ireland, since it's very possible that the person you're looking for no longer lives in the county where their surname is most common. Major cities you should try include Dublin, Galway, Cork and Belfast.
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Contact other people in Ireland of the same last name as the person you're looking for. Even if the previous steps didn't turn up the correct person, you should at least have a substantial list of other people of the same last name along with their phone numbers. Try calling them and asking if they know the person you're looking for. Chances are, even if they don't, they may know someone who can help you.
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Tips & Warnings
Be patient. It can sometimes take time to get the information you're looking for, and Irish culture is often less direct than American culture. You may have to speak to someone a few times or make unrelated conversation before you get the information you're looking for.
