I agree about the trap that can occur on ancestry.com when it comes to borrowing information from other trees. I've found that sometimes using info from someone else's tree can be a good springboard to actual primary sourced data like census data etc. Right now - I have a quick and dirty tree using whatever info ancestry has (incl other trees) and then I have my primary sourced only tree that I'm slowly building. I told my wife our next trip will likely involve some cemeteries (sign #24 that you're getting old).

I never thought of the slave owner angle. Hmmm...so far all my direct descendants have been mostly north of the Mason Dixon...

Where in Ireland?