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.