Local historical societies are a source of family history hints that shouldn't be ignored. Often society membership is necessary to take advantage of the information they have; sometimes helpful data can be found free on the society's website.

Rock County Historical Society (RCHS) is located in Janesville, Wisconsin. Many Irish immigrants during the Famine era came through Wisconsin, and the majority of the Irish with rural origins settled in the southwest part of the state. (There are three "Irish Valleys," three "Irish Ridges," and an Irish Hollow in southwest Wisconsin.)

My husband Bill's great-grandparents were married in 1856 near Janesville, WI, in Rock County. While looking at the RCHS website (www.rchs.us), I perused the organization's  publication, The Finial (Winter 2015). Of particular interest to me was a "Stories from the Stacks" article written by the archives manager, Ruth Anderson. She reported on research into the ancestry of Theodore Davey and his wife, Georgia/Mary Georgiann Devins, using RCHS records including locally-published resources. Her inquiries led her to the obituary of Georgia Devins' father, George. The obit disclosed George's father was John Devins, who'd settled in the village of Footville, WI, in 1856. Further, Footville: The First 150 Years identified John Devins' birthplace as "Donecoy Co., Ireland."

Irish researchers know immediately there is no such Irish county as 'Donecoy'. Anderson recognized it was probably a more specific geographical location and after further research concluded 'Doonycoy' was a placename in Templeboy parish, County Sligo. As she put it, "A grain of truth in the sesquicentennial publication led to the identification of a townland in John Devins' native country." Don't overlook the resources and researchers at local historical societies.