Thanks for all the answers to the question I posed about middle names. This has been very interesting. I hope to read more answers to see what others have to say. Linda [email protected] wrote: Hi list, I have a data base that containe hundreds of births (Irish Catholic parentage, and a few French) and deaths for the 1840's forward and I have looked at this to make some generalizations. In the 1840s and into the 1850s it was rare to see a middle name given to a male child. (Females had names like Mary Ann, Mary Elizabeth, but the majority of them did not have a middle name listed.) The exceptions to the rule of no-middle-name for boys thru the 1850s were children whose father was something other than a "laborer." Carpenters, Blacksmiths and the like were much more likely to list a middle name for their male children. By 1860 it was more common to see newborn boys with middle names. It seems that the "better class" of Irishmen were using middle names befor it became common. Early French and German immigrants seem to have used middle names right along. John ************************************** AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at http://www.aol.com. ====Irish American Mailing List===== Add/check your surname to the Irish-American mailing list Surname Registry at: http://www.connorsgenealogy.com/IrishAmerican/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message --------------------------------- Finding fabulous fares is fun. Let Yahoo! FareChase search your favorite travel sites to find flight and hotel bargains.