Possibly, a kind person will be able to answer a question regarding M'. Searching for my wife's ancestors on the Flax Growers 1776, County Tyrone. I came upon two spellings. One using the prefix M' and one without. My question is: In a surname does M' mean the same as Mc..... ? Enumerators listed M' Laughlin and Laughlin among other spellings. Thank you in advance. Cheers, Denis

Yes, Mc and M' are the same (and, though you didn't ask, Mac can be in the mix as well). The most modern usage of M' I saw was in a US newspaper (while browsing through microfilm for a death notice) when I saw a headline about General Douglas M'Arthur. It caught my eye because 1) though I'm used to seeing M' in Irish records, I'd never seen it used in US records, and 2) I had never seen it used in such a recent context. Doubtless it was used for space reasons (in the article itself, "MacArthur" was spelled out), but it signaled to me that the M' usage was common enough (in the 1940s-1950s) that the editors expected the readers to be familiar with it. Hope that helps. Claire K seekay@comcast.net On Feb 28, 2009, at 10:46 AM, Genealogy wrote: > ...Searching...the Flax Growers 1776, County > Tyrone....My question is: In a surname does M' mean the same as > Mc..... ? > ...