Hi Listers, A wee bit of advice please. If I find two Robert Calhouns in the 1826 TAB in the same townland, one designated Senr and one designated Junr, and they are listed one below the other, can I assume they are father and son? Or at least, what are the chances of such being the case? B

Hi Boyd, I think you'll see no one agrees on this. Some assume Sr/Jr means father son, some assert it just means elder / younger (not necessarily father / son or even related). Is Jr still there in GV while Sr. isn't? Has Jr. assumed responsibility for both farms? If so, I'd lean toward thinking they were father / son. If both Sr and Jr are there in GV, trace forward in the Cancelled Land Books -- do you see family names taking over and/or uniting the two farms? All speculation, of course, but with some more research you might find info to help you decide how likely it is to be one family. So, that's my "official" advice. Unofficially, I'd think it's likely they were father / son, but would still look to prove / disprove it. HTH Claire K [email protected] On Sep 13, 2008, at 4:01 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: > ...If I find two Robert Calhouns in the 1826 TAB in the same > townland, one > designated Senr and one designated Junr, and they are listed one > below the > other, can I assume they are father and son? Or at least, what are > the > chances of such being the case? > ...

Hello Boyd. Here is what is said about it (there are further examples given in the paper) in that wonderful paper about Griffith's on the County Roscommon site: "Agnomen Section No. 31 of the Instructions states that when "two or more persons in a townland have the same Christian and surname, it will be necessary to obtain an agnomen (as Farmer)." Agnomen is a Latin word meaning "an additional name." When Griffith offered the word "Farmer" as his sole example of an agnomen, he afforded great latitude to the valuators in their choice of additional names to differentiate between individuals. For the genealogist, the agnomen has become one of the most useful clues for developing family relationship hypotheses. 1. "Junior - senior" appears to be the most commonly utilized agnomen. Black's Law Dictionary: Definitions of the Terms and Phrases of American and English Jurisprudence, Ancient and Modern (by Henry Campbell Black. St. Paul, MN, 4th ed., 1968) defines "'junior as a convenient distinction between a father and son of the same name." Occasionally either "junior" or "senior" is omitted (Figure 4). It is the author's contention that the singular use country-wide of "junior-senior" to distinguish between individuals, in spite of the array of other agnomens available in each geographical locality, is a strong affirmation of a "father-son" relationship. 2. The men employed by Griffith as valuators were native-born Irish familiar with the traditional naming practices. As shown in Figure 5, the Gaelic practice of using a father's name to distinguish between men with the same given name was a frequently applied agnomen The use of a father's name in this fashion should not be interpreted to indicate that the father is deceased; he may be living in the same townland or in a neighboring one. ..." Here is the URL to the paper, as posted by several kind listers previously: http://www.leitrim-roscommon.com/GRIFFITH/more_to_griffiths.html HTH: ray in oz ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: "'IRL-Donegaleire-L'" <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, September 14, 2008 6:01 AM Subject: [DONEGALEIRE] TAB Senr and Junr > Hi Listers, > > A wee bit of advice please. > > If I find two Robert Calhouns in the 1826 TAB in the same townland, one > designated Senr and one designated Junr, and they are listed one below the > other, can I assume they are father and son? Or at least, what are the > chances of such being the case? > > B