LETTERMULLEN-GALWAY-L Archives

From: "Kenneth Bayliss" <>
Subject: List Issues
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1998 23:46:28 -0500

As all of you are probably aware, this list is a very new list, less than
two months old. I started it because of my interest in genealogy related to
the Lettermullen, Lettermore, Gorumna and Furnish areas of County Galway. I
have a few issues that I would like to run by the list members to get their
guidance.

Here are a few questions that I would like some input on.

1) The name of the list is decidedly narrow. Lettermullen itself is very
small and I would be interested in people's thoughts regarding a logical
description of the area covered by the list. Right now my intention is to
cover roughly the areas of Lettermullen, Lettermore, Gorumna and Furnish. I
have limited it to this area because I don't have the time to oversee a list
that might be devoted to all of County Galway. Does anyone with knowledge
of the area have ideas as to how the area might be both defined as to limits
(i.e. which islands included) and described (Is there a name for this area
that I don't know of that might describe a specific and known area including
these islands).

2) Which language should we use in naming the islands? As you may be
aware, I do not speak Irish and this area is a gaeltacht (Irish speaking
area). While my first reaction is to use Irish spellings, reflection has
led me to conclude that English may be the better choice for the following
reasons:

Almost all Irish speakers speak English, but few English speakers speak
Irish
The text of almost all e-mails will likely be in English
Concerns about consistency of spelling in Irish (though this is a problem in
English too)
Difficulty in spelling properly where no accent marks are available on most
keyboards

3) Should we keep a list of surnames and individuals interested in those
names? If this was done subscribing members could then be directed to
others with common interests. I could add this information to that received
by new subscribers. If people are interested in doing this, they can simply
supply me with a list of surname interests, preferably in the following
form, giving both name and as much geographical info. as possible:
MCDONAGH--Callah Gholaim, Lettermullen, Galway

4) What other ideas to people have for making this list useful to
themselves and others?

Your thoughts and comments appreciated. Please post to list.

Ken Bayliss

This thread:

• List Issues by "Kenneth Bayliss" <>