Hello, Mary Coghlan, daughter of James, gives her place of birth as what looks like "Abigail" on her marriage certificate. She was born about 1815. She was probably born in East Galway, and the townland must be Abbey-something. I checked the townland website but could not find anything ending in 'gale' 'gail' or 'gate.' The writing on the certificate is pretty good, so I think this is an obscure local placename. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what Abigail can be? Thank you, Margaret LaCombe

As she was born in 1815, Irish would have been her first language. How about Abbeyábhal Not exactly the same - but then her Irish would have been much stronger than today's Irish - words would not have been pronounced the same. First of all - she'd have been brought up speaking Irish - and second, the placenames as they are on the Townland Atlas are only those that were there in 1851 - it''s based on the 1851 census - and they're the English names - not the Irish names and placenames in Irish are so much different than in English - much more descriptive generally. Couple of Galway examples for you Abbey - Mainistir Chinéil Féichín Abbeygrey - Mainistir na mBráthar Liath Abbeygormacan - Mainistir Uí Ghormacáin Abbeyville E.D. - Rann na Mainistreach Abbey Island - Oílean na Mainistreach Abbeydorney - Mainistir Ó dTorna So, take it that she was an Irish speaker - and then take a look at the various places with 'Abbey' in them as listed in the townlands atlas. You've got Abbey ; Abbeyfield ; Abbeygormacan ; Abbeygrey : Abbeyland Great ; Abbeyland Little ; Abbeyland North ; Abbeyland South ; Abbeypark ; Abbeytown . and then try and fit in the Irish word for the second part of any placename. The people didn't necessarily call these places by these names and they may have mixed up the English word and the Irish word that they'd have used to describe/name the place. So - Abbey - they may have shortened the Chinéil and tagged that on to the end of the English name. Abbeygrey may have been Abbeyliath. Abbeyville might be your place, but I'd be more inclined to go for Abbeyland Great. ábhal or áibhle is great, immense.......... Anyway - just a suggestion. Jane ----- Original Message ----- From: "Margaret LaCombe" <mlacombe@megalink.net> To: <IRL-GALWAY-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, February 05, 2005 1:19 PM Subject: [GALWAY] Help with townland > Hello, > > > Mary Coghlan, daughter of James, gives her place of birth as what looks > like > "Abigail"