Hi Debbie, I think there is a quicker route for checking OLD spellings of Irish surnames. It may or may not be of use to you...may be to others on the list with 'unfounded' names. This is a UCC project which is still evolving...but the Full Index to Petty's '1659 Census' of 'Principal Irish names' is complete... http://minerva.ucc.ie:6336/dynaweb/atlas/atlas/@Generic__BookView Also, for those with impossible sounding placenames there is available the "Onomasticon Goedelicum: locorum et tribuum Hiberniae et Scotiae: an index, with identifications, to the Gaelic names of places and tribes by Edmund Hogan, S.J. (Dublin: Hodges Figgis, 1910)" This one is a bit difficult to decipher...see for yourselves... http://minerva.ucc.ie:6336/dynaweb/locus/dictionary/@Generic__BookView The letter "M" was left out and can be found at http://www.ucc.ie/locus/Letterm.htm Anyone with any suggestions at to wehre I can find the old Claddagh School records for the 19th century?...chasing them for years (no there not in the NAI nor at the present day school)...closest hit was a facsimile of a page in an old Galway Roots magazine...the AUTHOR of the article didn't know where she's gotten the records!!!!!!! Good hunting, Nancy --- "Dr. Jane Lyons" <sniliaghin@iol.ie> wrote: > I wonder Debbie, if the surname Matdam could actually have been Madden? > The > difference in spelling could be that the name was written as it sounded > and/or transcribed incorrectly. > > When people said they came from somewhere like Tuam, they could have > been > speaking of one of a few types of Land Division. They may have meant the > > town itself, the Civil Parish or even the Poor Law Union. So, they could > > have lived any where within about a ten mile radius of Tuam town itself, > and > could have actually lived in any one of a few parishes. > > I'm not trying to make this harder for you, it's just you've said that > this > is your brick wall. > > Now, this is not evidence per se but in the Griffiths Valuation for Tuam > > civil parish, (later than the time frame you'd need), there is only one > person of the surname Curley listed, plus, there is one 'Madden' > reference > and bot of these people were leasing land in Tuam town, on the same > street > even. > > Just something for you to think about. > > Jane > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Debbie Bert" <debbiebert@ameritech.net> > To: <IRL-GALWAY-L@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Tuesday, June 21, 2005 7:42 PM > Subject: [GALWAY] My Brick Wall, CURLEY , Taum, Galway > Ontario, Canada > > > > Our CURLEY line came to Canada from Ireland. Their son Thomas was > born in > > Ireland in 1827, but I believe they could of been in Canada by 1832. > > This line is my brick wall so to speak. To different branches of the > > family (that did not know > > > ==== IRL-GALWAY Mailing List ==== > To unsub or change your Irl-Galway mailing mode: > http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/intl/IRL/IRL-GALWAY.html > > ============================== > View and search Historical Newspapers. Read about your ancestors, find > marriage announcements and more. Learn more: > http://www.ancestry.com/s13969/rd.ashx > > NYC Irish Research Pages http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~nyirish/research.html ____________________________________________________ Sell on Yahoo! Auctions – no fees. Bid on great items. http://auctions.yahoo.com/