Genealogy Chat

Whilst I continue to beaver away with my own lines, though break-throughs are now rare, my wife has now taken an interest in her Irish roots (mainly in Co. Galway).

She showed me an article in the Irish Times from October 2016. An extract from that article:-

A few hundred years ago people paid little attention to how names were spelled. One extreme example is on a tombstone in Ireland where the surname for a family of six is shown as McEneaney, McAneany, McAneny, McEnaney, McEneany – and Bird (from the mistaken belief that the name comes from éan, a bird).

My OH has an ancestor in the mid-1800's, whose 6 children were all registered with different spellings of their surname!

His cousin was only interested in tracing the people who spelt their names the same way she did, but rapidly gave up that idea when she got back as far as said ancestor and only one was spelt her way!! :-S

not being able to read or write often had a bearing on the records

the enumerator or the registrar spelt it as it sounded and regional accents too played a part .

if you couldnt read then you wouldnt know how anything was spelt