North West of Grand Rapids in Ottawa County, the Irish settled around Marne, formerly named Berlin, in Talmadge Township.  Further out was another Irish group in Dennison.  These areas were settled in the early to mid 1840's.  Like other ethnic groups, the Irish settled together and, and built themselves a parish church as soon as they were able.  Holland was mostly of Dutch background, but in Grand Haven and Spring Lake there were some Irish settlers.

BERLIN, later known as MARNE, was named after one of the earliest settlers who built a mill in the area.  He was a popular figure in the area, so the residents in the area named the settlement after him.  The name was changed because of a misunderstanding of the origin.  During W.W.I soldiers wrote home to ask their families to change the name of the village from Berlin, and call it Marne, in remembrance of the "Battle of the Marne".   I will start my focus on Berlin/Marne, as that is where my family are from.  I hope to add a link of any name that I have more information on, and from descendants of each family who send me their information or a link to their web sites.

Many of the early Marriage and Baptism records, from 1850 on, will be found at St. Andrew's Parish (in Latin). This was the "parent" parish church for the smaller "mission" churches located further out from Grand Rapids.  So for this reason many of the Ottawa County parish records will be in Grand Rapids in the 'early' years.  Other settlements near to Berlin/Marne with Irish settlers are DENNISON, COOPERSVILLE, ......