Still Struggling

I'm still struggling to get back into the genealogy research. I took a break from it during the summer when I adopted the newest McHugh descendant, Izzie (he's a dog). He's had some health problems and was in dire need of training, so I was pretty busy. The problem is that I've been wanting to get back into the research for a few months now and am at a loss as to where to pick it up. I think the crux of the matter is that I stopped at a point when I had pretty much exhausted my U.S. searches. It is time to "jump the pond" and start looking at Ireland.

I decided the other day to begin this endeavor by completing one of my goal sheets for my father's paternal grandfather. I first identified what is known or what has been handed down to us. In this case, the information my dad had always been told was that his paternal grandfather, Dennis Joseph McHugh, was born in the Village of Cork in County Cork, Ireland. He supposedly left Ireland for Canada to follow his love, Mary Griffen. They then immigrated to Luzerne County, PA.

I then identified what is is I wish to know. I am in doubt of my great-grandfather's birthplace. The preliminary searches I've done for Irish records do not list any McHugh family in County Cork, much less the village of Cork. However, I have done such a precursory skim of only that information found online for free that I cannot rule it out based only on that information. But I do need to keep an open mind and consider that the birthplace(s) of my great grandparent(s) was not Cork, Ireland.

Just don'tell dad. He won't like the fact that I'm considering other options :).