Greetings all! I think Macoupin refers to a plant found along the present Macoupin Creek and is an adaptation of an Indian word. One thing all of us Macoupin County researchers should be thankful for is: There is only one place, name, etc in the whole world that refers us to Macoupin County in an internet search. Very useful in narrowing down "hits" on the search. It could be a lot worse and we could have to search for: Smith relatives in Washington County. Happy Holidays to all. My family always pronounced it as Mah Coop in. Larry Clark formerly of Gillespie, Illinois ----- Original Message ----- From: Ann McReynolds <ARMcR@mcreynoldsappraisal.com> To: <ILMACOUP-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, December 17, 1999 1:16 PM Subject: [ILMACOUP-L] Mah-goo-pan? > I've been following this dialogue off and on with some interest, and wonder if anyone knows WHO > Macoupin was? Looks like it could have been French, rather than Celtic (as in McCoupin). If > so.....it likely was originally pronounced Mah-coo-pan' (with just the beginning sound of the "N"). > AND, it might even originally had a hard "G" in the middle, which was lost entirely to many of the > non-French speakers. We have a bunch of French names here in St. Louis that have been "Germanized" > into the strangest sounds you can imagine. However, nothing can top Courtois Creek, about 100 miles > SW of St. Louis, which is now called "Coat'-a-way" by everyone. It's a real stretch to get from > Coor-twah' to Coat'-a-way, but it happened! > Ann McReynolds, > St. Louis > > > ==== ILMACOUP Mailing List ==== > Check out Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, 1763-1900: > http://www2.sos.state.il.us/cgi-bin/marriage >