Denis, during the 10 years I've been doing genealogical research on my family, I've found that Hegarty is probably the correct spelling in Ireland of my family name (It has always been phonetically the correct pronunciation) and while there are more people with the spelling of Haggerty in America than Hagerty or Hegarty, that I've found was the result of the fact most of the Hagertys or Hegartys that emigrated during the Great Famine and in the decade or so afterwards were illiterate and either the immigration clerks or census takers wrote down what they what they thought they heard. I know of people whose families also corrected the spelling and of others that didn't bother. In my family's case, my Great-grandfather was listed in the 1860, 1870 & 1880 census as Denis Haggerty. It wasn't until my Grandfather John and his sister Mary, the two oldest children had sufficient schooling in the late 1880s, that by the 1890 census (destroyed in fire), that the spelling of our surname was corrected, as was the spelling for my Great-grandfathers brothers and cousins. I checked the spelling on Haggerty on the website you mentioned and came up with only one and it appeared to be someone living in New York in 1864. Also the number of those with the spelling of Haggerty in Ireland are as result of someone returning to Ireland from America or Canada in the latter 19th century. Ed Hagerty

The 1901 Irish census noted whether or not people could read and/or write. Even that late, many Irish were not literate. Throughout the 19th century, when many of our Irish ancestors came to North America, those who were not literate had no set spelling for their names. Whenever someone recorded their name, it was spelled however the scribe thought it sounded. Recently I lived in Ireland for a year. During that year I spent 100s of hours going through Irish parish registers looking for Haggertys, including any reasonably similarly spelled name. Some of the registers I have examined date back as far as the late 1600s. For the most extreme example, I found one family, headed by Daniel and Mary, whose 14 children were christened between 1742 and 1759. The spellings of their surname included: Higerty, Higirthy, Haggarthy, Hegerty, Hagerty and Haggerty (in chronological order). I don't think there were "correct" or "incorrect" spellings until relatively recently--I would suggest ! well into the 1800s. In the case of my own family, who came to Canada in 1823, the family was literate, yet even so, shifts in spelling occurred. The baptism records for the children (my gg grandfather, his brothers and sisters, and many first cousins) in the Kilmeen Irish parish register were all spelled "Hagertie." Yet, a document signed by my ggg grandfather's brother in the 1830s, after he arrived in Canada, shows a spelling of "Haggertie." In the Canadian land registry records the family name was spelled "Haggertie" until the mid 1860s, at which time "Haggerty" first appeared. One of the cousins in the late 1880s decided that the name looked better spelled "Haggarty" and his descendants still use that spelling. Three of my great grandfather's brothers decided to drop one g, and they and their descendants became "Hagerty." Descendants of this family who remained in Ireland now spell their name the common Irish way, "Hegarty." Official name changes were unheard of in those times--people just ! spelled it how they wished. Three of my ggg grandfather's sisters and one of his brothers settled in Mercer County, Pennsylvania. The brother held onto the Haggertie spelling, according to their tombstones, but his descendants are now Haggerty. I have examined the US census images for this family and the spellings varied from census to census, so again, I think the enumerators often decided how to spell the names, regardless of how people spelled it themselves. I really believe that we cannot consider any spellings in those early years as either correct or incorrect. They just were. Accordingly, people today should not assume that how a name is spelled is necessarily a reflection of relationships. At least that's my belief--I know it is not a view shared by everyone. Sharon M. Haggerty London, ON Canada ----- Original Message ----- From: <hagerdonngenealogy@earthlink.net> To: <IRL-CORK-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, December 18, 2005 2:21 PM Subject: Hegarty/Hagerty?Haggerty > Denis, during the 10 years I've been doing genealogical research on my > family, I've found that Hegarty is probably the correct spelling in > Ireland of my family name (It has always been phonetically the correct > pronunciation) and while there are more people with the spelling of > Haggerty in America than Hagerty or Hegarty, that I've found was the > result of the fact most of the Hagertys or Hegartys that emigrated > during the Great Famine and in the decade or so afterwards were > illiterate and either the immigration clerks or census takers wrote down > what they what they thought they heard. I know of people whose families > also corrected the spelling and of others that didn't bother. > > In my family's case, my Great-grandfather was listed in the 1860, 1870 & > 1880 census as Denis Haggerty. It wasn't until my Grandfather John and > his sister Mary, the two oldest children had sufficient schooling in the > late 1880s, that by the 1890 census (destroyed in fire), that the > spelling of our surname was corrected, as was the spelling for my > Great-grandfathers brothers and cousins. > > I checked the spelling on Haggerty on the website you mentioned and came > up with only one and it appeared to be someone living in New York in > 1864. Also the number of those with the spelling of Haggerty in Ireland > are as result of someone returning to Ireland from America or Canada in > the latter 19th century. > > Ed Hagerty > > > ==== IRL-CORK Mailing List ==== > Support RootsWeb in data acquisition > http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/how-to-subscribe.html > > ============================== > Search Family and Local Histories for stories about your family and the > areas they lived. Over 85 million names added in the last 12 months. > Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13966/rd.ashx > >