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Records - as Gaeilge

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  • 08-07-2015 12:35pm
    #1
    CassieManson
    Registered Users Posts: 695 ✭✭✭


    Hi all,

    I have recently started researching my Galway connections and this seems to be complicated by the trend to start using Irish names in the civil registrations.

    I wondered if anyone else has experience of this. Was there a change of policy at some stage? (I would guess that pre 1922 the records had to be in English even for Irish speakers). At some stage it became possible to register births etc in Irish.

    This can make it very difficult when searcing (I have found several different ways of spelling John (eg Sean, Seaghan). Also on the records on Ancestry the names are also shown in English - does anyone know if they did the translation or would the original indices have had both English and Irish lanuage versions of names?

    The records on irishgenealogy.e seem to only have the Irish language versions.


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    #2
    pedroeibar1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,108 ✭✭✭pedroeibar1


    I have a birth from 1919 in Irish in the Civil registers (Q1 1919. Dublin North.) Gaelgoir parent, although not a native speaker. I could not find him at first but tried the Irish spelling in Familysearch and found him! I suspect a strong Gaelic League influence. My own is in Irish also, caused me no end of grief when getting my first passport as I never used the Irish version of my name. My baptismal cert is in English.

    I also know of a case in another family where the reverse happened - a guy in very early 1900's moved to Dublin from Kerry and his Dublin father-in-law-to-be consented to the marriage on the condition that he changed his surname to the Irish version. A few generations later the family still uses the Irish version but have barely the cupla focail to rub together.


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    #3
    Jellybaby1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,108 ✭✭✭Jellybaby1


    Wonder why anyone would insist on using gaelic names if they can't speak the language? Is it just the wee drop of rebel blood still running in the veins? I have come across people before who insisted they were Irish speakers only to discover they couldn't string a sentence together with me, even though I only have primary school Irish and very little of it at that. Funnily enough, the last person who said to me 'conas ata tu?, was an African woman! :D


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