The Ballycastle Blog: Irish Genealogy and More

When researching your Irish ancestors online, be aware that transcription errors may occur when old handwritten paper records are transcribed or transferred to electronic databases. Prior to the Irish National Archives launching its searchable online 1911 Irish Census database last year, I already had my grandfather Martin Healy’s 1911 Irish Census record listing him, his wife Mary, and Mary’s brother John Sweeney, living at the same residence on King Street in Ballina, County Mayo. When the online 1911 census database opened for business, I decided to test it by entering “Martin Healy, male, County Mayo” to view the results. I was surprised when my grandfather did not appear anywhere in the resulting list of Martin Healys in County Mayo in 1911. After some repeated tries with no success, I decided to try John Sweeney, knowing that John appeared on the same record at the same address as my grandparents. Lo and behold, there they all were, Martin, Mary, and John, King Street, Ballina, County Mayo. It turned out that the National Archives records specialist, entering the handwritten record information into the electronic database, mistook the script “H” in “Healy” for a “K”. Thus, Martin and Mary Healy are listed as Martin and Mary Kealy in the database. I submitted a correction to the Archives for their attention.

Lesson Learned: Transcription errors are frustrating for the Irish ancestor researcher. They can throw you completely off track. If, at first, you don’t find your ancestor in an electronic database, you may have to try other spellings of a surname with completely different letters to find the correct electronic record. You may need to guess what errors the records specialist may make when entering the data in the database.

See more Irish family history articles and lessons learned in earlier posts below and in the archives.

Throughout the peak Irish emigration years, it was very common for a number of Irish people from the same Irish village to settle in the same American city when they emigrated to America. For example, people from a small village just west of Belmullet, County Mayo, Ireland, all came to Holyoke, Massachucetts and settled there with their friends and families. Likewise, people from Achill Island, County Mayo, Ireland, all came to Cleveland, Ohio, when they emigrated to America. Hence, today you’ll find a large sign on Achill Island proudly proclaiming that its sister city is Cleveland, Ohio, USA. It is estimated that up to a quarter of the population of the Ohio city can be traced back to the West of Ireland and to Achill Island in particular.

Knowing where one Irish American family in an American city originated in Ireland, may lead to the origins of other Irish American families in the same American city.

Let us know what Irish villages sent Irish emigrants to your city.

See more Irish family history articles and lessons learned in earlier posts below and in the archives.

When reviewing and extracting information from an old handwritten U.S. or Irish document, you should look at the entire document to determine the unique handwriting traits of the official who completed the document long ago. From these unique handwriting traits, you can identify how the official formed the individual letters in words on the document. For example, on a handwritten birth certificate, a person’s surname, written in script, appears to have the letter “r” in it. On closer inspection, comparing the script surname with other script word entries on the certificate reveals that the “r” is actually an “e”. If there is any doubt or question about an illegible name on a document, it is smart to look at all of the handwritten words and entries in the document to help solve the mystery of the illegible name.

The English translations of Irish village and town names have taken different spellings over the years. In the early 1800’s, engineering and map surveyors traveled throughout Ireland, translating Irish place names into English, with varying results (see previous posting about Translations: The Play). The Irish word for “head” is “cean”. Irish village names starting with “cean” translated to “cane” or “keane” in the English versions. In the 1901 Irish census, the grandfather of one recent client lived in Canearagh in County Kerry. The same man’s 1878 birth certificate spelled his birthplace as Keaneiragh. Both of these spellings are correct spellings for the same place. Discovering and knowing these spelling differences make Irish family document searches that much more satisfying and interesting to do.

One interesting aspect of Irish children’s first names, is this name pattern tradition that a large number of Irish families followed in the 1800’s and 1900’s:

1st son was named after the father’s father
2nd son was named after the mother’s father
3rd son was named after the father
4th son was named after the father’s eldest brother

1st daughter was named after the mother’s mother
2nd daughter was named after the father’s mother
3rd daughter was named after the mother
4th daughter was named after the mother’s eldest sister

I’ve seen this tradition in the numerous Irish family document searches that I’ve conducted, while examining Irish records from 1850 through 1920.

While working with a client and searching for the client’s mother’s Irish birth certificate, I spoke with a representative from one of the many Irish Family History centers in Ireland. From these conversations, I learned that it was not unusual for the mother-to-be to travel to her parents’ home village or town to give birth to her baby. Consequently, an infant appearing on a census record may not have been born in the village of record at the time of the census. The family may have moved there after the child was born, prior to the census, or the mother returned to her parents’ home to give birth to her baby. Therefore, in either case, document record searches in locations beyond the census recorded home location are necessary and required.

Throughout the centuries, some Irish family surnames proliferate in specific geographic regions and counties in Ireland – Murphy in Cork, O’Sullivan in Kerry, Sweeney in Mayo, Healy in Sligo, Power in Waterford, etc. etc.

Knowing the Irish family surname location patterns throughout Ireland helps you isolate regions of the country where a particular Irish ancestor’s origins may be found. Additionally, combining the ancestor’s parents’ surnames, the father’s surname and the mother’s maiden name, may pinpoint a specific civil parish and townland where those two surnames were dominant in past centuries and still are today.

Let us know the geographic regions of Ireland where you found your Irish ancestors’ family names and post them here.

See more Irish family history articles and lessons learned in earlier posts below and in the archives.

According to Irish surname specialists, the surname “Whelan” is the 79th most common surname in Ireland. Thousands of Irish immigrants named “Whelan” came to America in the last two centuries. A large number of them saw their family name recorded “Whalen” by government immigration and census officials on government forms. Consequently, when searching for your long lost Irish ancestor “Joseph Whelan” or “Josephine Whelan”, be sure to look for “Whalen” also. Surname spelling variations occur with other Irish surnames also. To my bemusement, my global search for the surname “Whalen” for the entire country of Ireland in the Griffiths Valuation Survey (1840 – 1860) database produced zero households, and in the 1901 Irish census only 9 households.

Lesson Learned: If at first you don’t succeed in finding an ancestor with one Irish surname spelling, try a slight variation of that surname spelling to see what you might find.

Let us know what Irish surname spelling variations that you’ve encountered in your research and post them here.

See more Irish family history articles and lessons learned in earlier posts below and in the archives.

To trace the Irish origins of a client’s Irish grandfather, I recently searched a number of government record databases. The Irish grandfather’s name was Thomas Hogan. Feeling confident in pinpointing the specific person, I entered the first name, Thomas, and the family name (surname), Hogan, in the search fields of the searchable database. My confidence quickly diminished, when, unfortunately, the search results did not produce the one and only Thomas Hogan I was looking for. Being patient and persistent, I took a chance and broadened the search by simply entering the family name (surname), Hogan, in the search field. Although, as you can guess, this wider search produced hundreds of records, I hoped that it might uncover the correct Thomas Hogan. Eureka! Lo and behold, the “Hogan only” search produced a record for a “Thos. Hogan”, the correct one, the grandfather I was looking for.

The lesson learned: before giving up and suspending your search for a specific first name-last name combination, broaden your search to include an abbreviated first name. You may ultimately find the person you are looking for!

Footnote: To quicken the creation of a written form or record, a government official sometimes abbreviated the first name of a person in that form or record. Today, searchable electronic databases contain those same abbreviations.

See more Irish family history articles and lessons learned in earlier posts below and in the archives.

Many Irish surnames begin with O’, such as O’Grady, O’Sullivan, O’Neill, O’Reilly, and O’Brien. An O prefix on a surname translates to “grandson of”, whereas a Mac prefix translates to “son of”. It was not uncommon for Irish immigrants coming to America in the 19th century to lose the O’ or Mac, when they processed through U.S. Immigration, whether by choice or not. When searching for an Irish ancestor’s records in Ireland, it is wise to not only look for the surname without the O’, but also the surname with the O’. For example, in addition to looking for your grandfather James Sullivan in Ireland, you should also look for James O’Sullivan. You may find that your Irish family name originally had an O’ prefix long ago, before your ancestors traveled to America.

See more Irish family history articles and lessons learned in earlier posts below and in the archives.