We have a Godmother to one of our great aunts who was a COAKELY. Supposing that if she was a Godmother she must almost certainly have been kith if not kin, I have searched around the south Cork registers ( Templemichael, Dunderrow, Inishannon, Ballymartle ) for this name and only found a few - but was then informed that it could be written as COCHLAN / COGHLAN / COUGHLY....... or even COLCLOUGH! There were a few in and around, it certainly wasn't a common name. But were all these names related?? In other words, are all these names referring to the same " family " groups in the same way as, say all the O BRIEN are of the same family? And speaking of family ( or " Clan " ) surnames, one thing has always puzzled me. Surely not all those sharing the same surname can be of the same family? If your name is O SULLIVAN, could it mean that somewhere back your family was a either 1) related by blood 2) a servant, slave, retainer etc 3) just came from the area over which the O SULLIVAN'S had control And if they WERE all actually related, how come some names ( i.e. MURPHY, McCARTHY, O SULLIVAN etc etc ) have trillions of members, and others only a handful? Were some families just more pushy than others? Slan, Mary