This weekend my research led me to look at records for Rensselaer County, New York, where a large number of potato-famine Irish found work in the iron mills of south Troy. The name I'm researching is Charles Henry Welch, who received a Congressional Medal of Honor (MOH) for his bravery at the Little Big Horn in 1876. His was one of the names assigned to me as part of a DAR project to write biographies on Minnesota MOH recipients for an online database. According to his military record Welch was born in 1845 in New York. He entered the Army at Ft. Snelling, Minnesota, and I think that's his only connection to the state. After his military service, he lived out his life in northern Colorado where he died in 1915. In an attempt to flesh out his early life, I turned to Ancestry's census records. I found a young Charles H. Welch in Rensselaer County, NY, in the 1850 and 1860 censuses. It's not an uncommon name so I'm not 100% certain this is "my guy." I conclude, however, that the father of this Charles H. Welch died between 1850 and 1860; the family is complete in 1850, and the mother is a wash woman with two children in 1860.

Hoping to find out more, I found the website of the Troy Irish Genealogy Society (TIGS) with its excellent tips for researching in Troy: http://rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nytigs/TroyGenealogyResearchTipspage.htm So far I haven't solved my Welch mystery, but I've particularly enjoyed reading the "local history articles," found here: http://rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nytigs/LocaIrishHistoryPage.htm More research to be done on Charles Welch.