Researchers will often differentiate their ancestor on the basis of a second name. He was ‘Michael Martin Murphy’ rather than plain old ‘Michael Murphy’. However, the middle name usually has little relevance when seeking a Catholic ancestor in pre-20th century Irish records. Even if an ancestor is described in a US or UK record as having a second name, you would be well advised not to put too much reliance on finding this second name in any official Irish record. Catholic children were rarely baptised with a second name until the 20th century. This can be easily demonstrated by a search of the 1901 census returns (www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search) where a search of almost any ‘humble’ household will show that only a minority of the occupants will have a second name. The illustration above is a good example. In my own case, I am the first person in my family to have been given a second name at birth as my father, born 1921, has only one name as have all the members of the previous generations.
In truth, it is likely that many immigrants, faced with the perceived need to fit into the local US or Canadian custom and furnish a second name, made the decision to take their ‘nickname’ as a formal part of their name. In summary, a second name is therefore unlikely to be very useful as an identifier in Irish records.
Among Church of Ireland and Presbyterian families, and (later) in upper-class Catholic families, second names were much more commonly used, particularly within wealthier families. Their
For information on Irish surnames or family names, Flyleaf Press publish ‘Source for Irish Family History 2021‘ which lists 6,500 articles, books and monographs on around 2,500 Irish families.
(The illustration above shows a Scanlon household in 1901 with no middle names)
Other articles in our series on Irish Family Sources:
- Petty Sessions– the records of local courts
- Grand Jury Presentments– records of local councils on payments for public works and staff
- Rentals – management of tenants by estates and the records created
- Middle names– the use (or non-use) of second or middle names in Irish records
- How comprehensive are Irish Civil Records?
- Catholic Church Records
- Travellers’ accountsof Ireland in the 18th and 19th centuries
- Census returns in Gaelicor Irish language
- 60+ blogs with names extracted from manuscript source. A handy map index to these is available here.
This piece, written by Dr. Jim Ryan, originally appeared in http://theindepthgenealogist.com/
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