Suzanne, Do not dismiss the name of KAVANAGH which is the more common variant of the name over here. I find that most times the name is corrupted to the spellings you have outside of Ireland, even as far as to pronounce it as KAV-ANNA in the UK. I think they live under the illusion that it sounds better and sort of loses the link to their Irish ancestry? This was more common amongst the Irish communities in the days when you saw the signs saying "Irish not welcome" or "need not apply", so a change of spelling could open doors for them. Sadly phonetics has lost a lot of the origins over the years. I put it down to immigration officers in various lands not being familiar with the English/Irish language or brogues who could not be bothered but wrote it as it sounded. Of course in a lot of cases the Irish themselves could not read or write to question or correct the matter. Another one I often come across, lost in translation, is the name of HAYES which has been corrupted to HAISE/HAYS/HAZE etc.. slan Cyril Newsome Loch Garman
Personally, I think blaming immigration officers for changing surnames or the spelling of surnames is for the most part a myth. There was no motivation for these people to bother changing the names of the thousands of people who passed through their gates. And, passenger lists were prepared at the point of departure, not entry. In the U.S., for example, one can find that it was the immigrants themselves who chose to change their names - most often at the time of naturalization (several years after arriving). Of course, there was pressure from the dominant English-speaking culture to do so. This was certainly so in my region, where most immigrants began by working in the mines and the paternalistic mine captains from New England wanted everyone to become "good" Yankee-like citizens. No doubts the Irish, as English speakers, had some advantage over the Eastern and Southern Europeans, whose languages weren't understood and treated with suspect. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Cyril Newsome" <cnews@eircom.net> To: <wexford@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, February 02, 2009 12:43 PM Subject: Re: [WEXFORD] More Doyles. Murphys, Redmonds, Laceys, McCrearys > Suzanne, > > Do not dismiss the name of KAVANAGH which is the more common variant of > the > name over here. > > I find that most times the name is corrupted to the spellings you have > outside of Ireland, even as far as to pronounce it as KAV-ANNA in the UK. > I > think they live under the illusion that it sounds better and sort of loses > the link to their Irish ancestry? This was more common amongst the Irish > communities in the days when you saw the signs saying "Irish not welcome" > or > "need not apply", so a change of spelling could open doors for them. > > Sadly phonetics has lost a lot of the origins over the years. I put it > down > to immigration officers in various lands not being familiar with the > English/Irish language or brogues who could not be bothered but wrote it > as > it sounded. Of course in a lot of cases the Irish themselves could not > read > or write to question or correct the matter. > > Another one I often come across, lost in translation, is the name of HAYES > which has been corrupted to HAISE/HAYS/HAZE etc.. > > slan > > Cyril Newsome > Loch Garman > > > > > Wexford Surnames List > > http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~hughw/wexford.html > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > WEXFORD-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.0.233 / Virus Database: 270.10.16/1930 - Release Date: 01/31/09 20:03:00