My given surname is McKie. This was originally Macaoidh in Gaelic. The seminal historical man was one Aie MacEth, rusticated from Strabane to the coast of Sutherland sometime near the end of the first millenium or so it is said. Nevertheless I was once berated by a woman at the Gaelic Society in Inverness for not adopting the 'official' anglicized spelling, MacKay. My spelling is particular to Galloway and Dumfries, there being gravestones in the old cemetery in Kirkcudbright and Dundrennan Abbey stretching back to at least the early 1800s with that spelling. There is fragmentary evidence of these kindred living in the area since before AD1300 largely based on the fact that some of said people received a gift of land in recognition of service to the Bruce at Bannockburn as archers. The 1841 Census has my GGG grandfather living near Moniaive in the same general area. My question is this: my grandfather always signed his surname with an underscore under the raised lowercase c. Was this a) an affectation? b) a 19C typesetters convention? or c) a signifying indication of some sort?

Hi, Craig, I have seen numerous examples of that same lower case c both raised and underscored. A typesetter's convention perhaps, but it was popularly hand written, too. Doug On Thu, Jul 21, 2011 at 6:23 PM, Craig McKie <craig@mckie.ca> wrote: > My given surname is McKie. This was originally Macaoidh in Gaelic. The > seminal historical man was one Aie MacEth, rusticated from Strabane to > the coast of Sutherland sometime near the end of the first millenium > or so it is said. Nevertheless I was once berated by a woman at the > Gaelic Society in Inverness for not adopting the 'official' anglicized > spelling, MacKay. > > My spelling is particular to Galloway and Dumfries, there being > gravestones in the old cemetery in Kirkcudbright and Dundrennan Abbey > stretching back to at least the early 1800s with that spelling. There > is fragmentary evidence of these kindred living in the area since > before AD1300 largely based on the fact that some of said people > received a gift of land in recognition of service to the Bruce at > Bannockburn as archers. The 1841 Census has my GGG grandfather living > near Moniaive in the same general area. > > My question is this: my grandfather always signed his surname with an > underscore under the raised lowercase c. Was this a) an affectation? > b) a 19C typesetters convention? or c) a signifying indication of some > sort? > > > 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 >

Interesting, I had read that the Mackays of Ugadale had no connection with the Mackays of Strathnaver? Though the pedigrees I have found make both branches from Aodh mac Gallbairt. I also came across an Ulster family of MacAoidh called MacKey. > On Thu, Jul 21, 2011 at 6:23 PM, Craig McKie <craig@mckie.ca> wrote: > > > My given surname is McKie. This was originally Macaoidh in Gaelic. The > > seminal historical man was one Aie MacEth, rusticated from Strabane to > > the coast of Sutherland sometime near the end of the first millenium > > or so it is said. Nevertheless I was once berated by a woman at the > > Gaelic Society in Inverness for not adopting the 'official' anglicized > > spelling, MacKay.