Irish Genealogy Roadblocks

I would like to help you out here momiecat. I've been researching my family history for over 30 years and now can tell the story of EVERY LINE of my family going back 7 generations of more. I started out by researching my own Irish ancestors and like you, I reached a roadblock early on. In fact even now I have reached further roadblocks on the Irish research BUT I still have learned a lot and can help you. On the subject of religion, it's highly likely that your ancestors were Roman Catholic as the vast majority of the Irish population was in centuries past. Certainly among those who fled the country due to famine or other severe circumstances, the majority were the poor and they were almost exclusively Catholics. So, you need to start with what information you DO have. For instance do you know the NAMES of the people in the generation that came from Ireland and, by the way, are you American and talking about Irish ancestors emigrating from Ireland to the US? Personally I'm English so my ancestors came to England in the 1840s from Ireland.

if any of them were military,you might look for enlistment records..they usually have something marked for religion.

Some of the best genealogy records around are those of the Mormons. They're not restricted to that faith either. Take a look here and see if this helps: http://www.familysearch.org