Thanks so much, Riobard. Very interesting, but oh so confusing. Yet another way to confound my search for Hannah Sullivan McCarthy!! Still, my journey continues! Take care, Loretta McDermott McGinn (Cuddihy-Kearney-Sullivan-McCarthy) In a message dated 1/16/2015 5:25:03 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, beara@rootsweb.com writes: Maybe this reply to a query received as to a particular Surname may be of interest to some of our readers. Suppose a Priest in the olden days was putting down the Baptism of a child, he would sometimes record the child with his/her Branch-Name instead of with the proper Surname. For example, if there were alot of McCarthys in an area, that child would be recorded in the Baptismal book with his/her Branch-Name Rohane rather than with his/her proper Surname McCarthy, in order to differentiate the child from other McCarthy Branch-names there. Sometimes a person might change from his proper Surname to a different Surname for a particular reason -- especially when emigrating to another country --- give his/her Branch-Name instead of the proper Surname. In that way the Branch-Name Rohane might be turned into the Surname Rohan. Often an emigration officer at the other end wouldn't understand the the way worda are spoken in different accents in different places. Re. some women who may have been married outside of Beara, I really wouldn't have a clue as to where they were married, because I did only the Beara records. Sometimes, people were thought to have been married here, whereas they could have been married elsewhere outside of Beara. Re. some -- and I must emphasise not all --- women who gave wrong ages, etc., different to their ages in my books, I suppose that the most sensible thing to do --- for the sake of my life --- might be to try and escape as fast my legs can carry me, because I might have to face fire, and more fire, that would burn a bush !! 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