I spent some time a while ago as part of a team transcribing BMD notices from the 1800s in a lowland newspaper and that paper's typesetters addressed the problem by writing everything as " M' " and leaving it to the reader to sort out. Given the unique spellings I have come across for my own name, I 'm not convinced that folks attached as much importance to such distinctions in the past as some family historians would have you believe. In the case of my own family, there were Gareys and Careys living close together in Auchinleck, Ayrshire, in the 1880s all of whom traced back to the same couple. One son of the couple used the name Carey and another Garey. Folks in my family used to make passing reference to us being somehow related to those Gareys but nobody seemed bothered enough about it to clear it up. John Carey -----Original Message----- From: dna-r1b1c7-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:dna-r1b1c7-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of tuulen Sent: July-21-11 9:16 PM To: craig@mckie.ca; dna-r1b1c7@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [R-M222] Question about patronymics 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 > 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