Thanks for the comeback on the O's. I am well acquainted with the Penal Laws and how destructive they were. Thanks again, Martin+ At 02:49 AM 12/17/98 EST, [email protected] wrote: >In a message dated 12/17/98 1:28:18 AM Eastern Standard Time, OCONNOR-D- >[email protected] writes: > ><< > It appears from the generous information supplied by Donalene that there > are more names of Connor than there are O'Connor. I always was of the > belief that the opposite was true >> > >That has more to do with who recorded the name as opposed to how the informant >spelled it... (if they could spell at all.) > >For instance... all the O'Connor names in the Griffiths Valuation data >(1850's) for the area of Kerry I studied, were ALL spelled Connor... but I >know my family always used the O'., and my family names from that same era >were all recorded in the church registers as O'Connor even though they were >Connor in the Griffiths. > >For quite a while the Irishness of surnames was discouraged by the powers that >be and they suffered great discrimination because of it.....and one way to do >that was through the data takers leaving off the O. I don't want to get into a >political discussion here on this genealogy list but if you read about the >Penal Laws you wont wonder about the spelling changes...you'll be more amazed >at how the names survived at all. > >hope you find this helpful! slán, >mary in orlando >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >Dingle,Co Kerry Genaealogy Help Page: >http://members.aol.com/waterlilys/index.html >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >County Kerry Ireland: >http://www.rootsweb.com/~irlker/index.html >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >SHARE YOUR STUFF! >Send only the word subscribe in the body of an email to: >[email protected] to join the Kerry List. > > >