Hello Riobard, Thanks for all your interesting stories! It's nice to hear about Ireland and what things were really like. Do you have any stories about the Rahillys? Are there still Rahillys in Beara today? -Tessa -----Original Message----- From: beara-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:beara-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Riobard O' Dwyer via Sent: Friday, October 23, 2015 3:31 PM To: beara@rootsweb.com Subject: [BEARA] Genealogical titbits. I still get requests for help from people. No rest for the wicked !! For instance, because of the fact that Gaelic/Irish was spoken by practically all the people around here in the olden days, the Priests, in those times, when writing down the Records of Birth and Baptism, wrote down the Surnames of the children in the Gaelic Language. Nowadays, a person whose Surname in the States was, let us say: Reilly, would then, when trying to trace an ancestor, find it put down as Rahilly in the Parish Records. Likewise, the Gaelic version of Mullins would be written as Mulliheen; the version of Holland in Gaelic was Wholihan; the version of Driscoll/O'Driscoll was Minihane; etc., etc. Riney was a Co. Kerry version of O'Neill ---- which found its way occasionally to Beara; which is beside a part of its border with Kerry. The olden trades like Miller, Weaver, Tinsmith, Ropemaker (from the remains of old fir trees), Boatbuilder, Blacksmith, Cooper, are gone here, and the only Shoemaker now left in all of Beara is, as far as I know, Jim Blake of Adrigole. A Great Grandmother of mine, Maire Uonhi ( in her case Uonhi would now be kown as Harrington), was born next to a forge in Eyeries, as her father was a Blacksmith who gave Maire an iron gate as her fortune when she got married. Her father was later evicted from their house because he was, like many people around here in those times, evicted because he was unable to pay the "rack rent" to the greedy Landlord. You had about 30 odd versions of Sullivan/O'Sullivan who were put down with their Branch-Names only. You often had the words "cliamhain isteach" (= a man settling down in his wife's farm as a son-in-law to her father ---- cliamhain = a son-in-law; isteach ( [coming] in. A man was often known with an addition of his father's Christian name e.g. Tade Philly (= Timothy, the son of Philip). Also Jackessy Mike = John, the son of Michael; George Silvy (= George, the son of Silvester); Quin Mag Jack (Quinlan, the son of Margaret, the daughter of John); Dan Nell (=Daniel, the son of Ellen); Dan Donal Thaidhg (Daniel, the son of Daniel, and the Grandson of Timothy); Batty Murt (=Bartholomew, the son of Mortimor). On the feminine side, you had Catherine Doncha Eoin (= Catherine, the daughter of Denis, and the granddaughter of Eugene); Betty Phadraig (= Elizabeth, the daughter of Patrick), and so on. As boys often married young, and as girls often married younger, they had big families. One time, again as of the olden days, I heard the story of a woman who had a very big family. When a neighbour said to her that she should take a "break" from the "activities" of her husband, she replied: "Poor Mike, sure 'tis the only pastime he has" !! Riobard. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to BEARA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message