Thanks. Had a feeling it wasn't going to be as easy as that!! Jane Australia -----Original Message----- From: countycork-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:countycork-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Ray Hennessy Sent: Saturday, 3 April 2010 12:01 AM To: countycork@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [CO CORK] [CO CORK] naming patterns for RC Irish families On 2 April 2010 13:48, Jane Sullivan <janeoz123@bigpond.com> wrote: I remember seeing a posting a while ago about the naming patterns use by > Irish families. I do not know for certain the names of parents & > grandparents of my ancestor, but am trying to use a process of elimination > using the names of the children. Could someone remind me of the naming > pattern? > Hi Jane I don't know how close Scottish and Irish naming patters are but for much of Scotland and quite a lot of England the pattern - not rigorously followed!! - is: 1st son - father's father 2nd son - mother's father 3rd son - father Other sons: grandparents' and parents' siblings, best friends, local worthies 1st dtr - mother's mother 2nd dtr - father's mother 3rd dtr - mother Other dtrs: as for other sons Do remember that this is only a general guide and many families didn't use it or some generations decided to ignore it. While your ancestors look as though they may have used it to some extent, it may not have been rigorous. [and note Ellen's comments which are very relevant.] If [big IF] they followed the pattern it looks like Mary Hayden's mother was Margaret. Without more info on the sequence of sons at both levels, working out Thomas's grandfathers' or Mary's father's possible names isn't achievable. -- Best wishes Ray ********************************************************** >From Ray Hennessy Forenames website: www.whatsinaname.net Preferred Email address: ray@whatsinaname.net Hints for Scotland's People at http://bit.ly/WIAN-SCP ********************************************************** Check out the Ireland GenWeb County Cork Website at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~irlcor/ It is a good place to find information related to your family research. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to COUNTYCORK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message