Certainly all the locals would have known that the MacUalraigs were Kennedys. Officials from outside the area may not have done but probably didn't care as long as they got the right one they were after. I asked the archivist at Inverness Archives the question about identity. The way he explained it was that these people would have carried an oral tradition that the two names were interchangeable. That still seems a bit strange since I imagine whole generations might have gone by without anyone recording them as Kennedys. Another factor is that often the clerk was not only not local but not a Gaelic speaker/writer. So some considerable mangling may be taking place. For all I know, 'Niell McEwan vicNaill Kennedy' might have been rolling on the floor in laughter if he had seen his name written like that. I am sceptical that he would have literally given that to an official as his name. More likely his brother gave his name as John McRory Kennedy and so they stuck Kennedy on the end of the other man's patronymic? Iain http://www.kennedydna.com > From: Lochlan@aol.com > Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2011 22:57:16 -0400 > To: dna-r1b1c7@rootsweb.com > Subject: Re: [R-M222] New Tactics > > I just read through some of Iain Kennedy's web pages. > > _http://www.kennedydna.com/Seventeenth_century_Kennedy_resources.htm_ > (http://www.kennedydna.com/Seventeenth_century_Kennedy_resources.htm) > > He makes some interesting observations. These caught my eye: > > 1. Rannoch men were mostly using patronymics and not surnames well into the > 18th century. > 2. The people of the Appin of Dull switched over to modern surnames > sometime earlier, by 1660 at the latest. > > > This one is strange (to me at least). > > 'post 1743' > Camiserichbeg features Niell McEwan vicNaill Kennedy and John McRory > Kennedy his brother > > This is classic confusing patronymic material! But there is logic in the > names, as John is the son of Rory and his brother is the grandson of Neill. > > Would anyone guess the following person is really a Kennedy? > > McEwin VcInduy alias McCorig of Leonachinbeg, Duncan, decree against him, > 578 > > > My question to Iain is did these men in Scotland have fixed surnames but > just didn't use them (they seem to pop up now and then in between the > patronymics). > > > > John > > R1b1c7 Research and Links: > > http://clanmaclochlainn.com/R1b1c7/ > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to DNA-R1B1C7-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message