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From: Lisa McKinney <>
Subject: Re: [TGF] Name Variation, a name change or a priest who can't spell
Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:34:09 -0700 (PDT)
References: <8626d.f8f69bc.3cc5e490@aol.com>
In-Reply-To: <8626d.f8f69bc.3cc5e490@aol.com>


My main Irish surname I've encountered is variously, Googerty, Gogerty, Guggerty and Gugerty.
 
I think the key to the key (of variable spelling), is "smooshing" the vowels as you sound out the words.  (Linguists on the list, can I get an "Amen?")
 
Thank you,
Lisa McKinney, MLA
Genealogy Research

From: "" <>
To:
Sent: Sunday, April 22, 2012 5:47 PM
Subject: Re: [TGF] Name Variation, a name change or a priest who can't spell

I must say I was doing the "happy dance" as the light bulbs were exploding 
in my head!
Ann


Kathy wrote:

Nora,

Thank you for sharing your valuable insight into Irish  records with the
TGF list. Ann Gilcrest especially must be happy to  receive it. I really
enjoyed your interesting  message.

Kathy

Aunt Lizzie's Trunk wrote:
>  Ann,
>
> In my experience with Irish research, spelling of  surnames is quite
> variable, and pronunciation is the key, I believe.  The Irish accent
> could not have been uniform across the island in the  19th century, and
> I'm sure it is not today, either. I have come to  believe, as well, that
> priests, though they may have been educated,  and certainly better
> educated than their parishioners on the whole,  might not have been /well
> /educated in the sense we would understand  it today.
>
> Similar to your family name, I have been researching  a family called
> Langan and found them in a US census as Lanning. I  would also expect to
> find them as Lanigan. My own father heard his  family name pronounced
> "Gallivan" when he visited his ancestral home.  My great-grandfather
> Cornelius Archdeacon was listed as Conorls  Schegan (by a German-surnamed
> enumerator) in Cincinnati in 1880, 5  years after his arrival from County
> Cork. (Try finding that with a  search engine!)
>
> I have looked at the records at FamilySearch.  For the most part the
> handwriting appears very neat and very  consistent. It appears to me that
> the priest, Fr. Smith, made a neat  copy of his records into this
> register at some point. He then went  back and signed each record with a
> thicker pen, or darker ink, in  larger handwriting. This "copying over"
> introduces the possibility  that he made transcription errors. In fact,
> regarding the entry of  Denis' baptism, the previous record is the
> baptism of James, son of  Wm. Quinn and Catherine Mackey. I would argue
> that the surname  "Quinn" for Hugh was caused by Fr. Smith losing track
> of where he was  in the old record while copying into the book. Also note
> the entry  for the baptism of Margaret McGuire, two records up from
> James'. One  of her godparents was named Anne Kesidy [Cassidy]. I'm sure
> we could  find many similar variations.
>
> I have not researched in that  region, so I can't suggest any other
> records to look for, but I will  say this. The matching of the church
> records to birth order on  censuses (note I did not say exact age) would
> be a strong indication  that you have the correct family. It is possible
> that finding  additional records for sons Dennis and Hugh might help you
> with the  ambiguity of the surname spelling and you may find variations
> in  reported ages similar to Catherine's.
>
> If you are doing Irish  research, however, you need to be comfortable
> with ambiguity and  inconsistency. :-)
>
> Nora Galvin
> Bridgeport,  Connecticut
>   

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