I always wondered why, around the turn of the 20th century, my RORKE's became O'RORKE, and my CONNOR's became O'CONNOR's. But I've just read an interesting article by the GUILD OF ONE-NAME STUDIES which seems to explain it, as follows: "During the Gaelic Revival of the late 19th century, and the struggle for independence in the first quarter of the 20th century, nationalists began using the Gaelic prefixes of "O" and "Mac" before their surnames"............ So, it seems that the mystery is solved! Colette