Sandra, You have surprised me with the suggestion that "In Ireland, illegitimate children were registered with the mother's name..." Is this typically so? I know that Corry Somerville had a son and two daughters by Mary Cunningham in Cumry Lodge, Monaghan. I don't know about the girls, but I do know that a Corry Somerville, probable age, shows up in Belfast where family lore suggested he went. We have other members in the family (nobles seemed to like to do that sort of thing!) wherein the 'natural' child was named for the father. One example is James Quaile Somerville who had a legitimate son Marcus and an illegitimate one "James Quaile Somerville". I only wish I knew the mother's name! So I don't think the child was always registered to the mother... Wendy ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sandra" <sgordon817@earthlink.net> To: "NIR-Down List" <NIR-DOWN-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2008 6:57 PM Subject: [NIR-DOWN] Survivors > <<My Brickwall is CORRY SOMERVILLE and his descendents. He was an >>>illegitimate son of our grgrandpa Corry Somerville. And there are no >>>other >>>Somervilles...>> > > In Ireland, illegitimate children were registered with the mother's > surname. > They could not take the father's name. I have ancestors in this > situation. In Ireland they are recorded everywhere with the mother's > surname of Davidson. Once they came to the United States, they "assumed" > the father's surname, which was Woods. > > Sandra > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > NIR-DOWN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >