Stirpes, Volume 6, Number 4, December 1966. Page: 157
pp. 121-160 ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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PROBLEMS OF IRISH GENEALOGY
I find in American genealogy too great a stress on the necessity
of taking your ancestors back into ancient history. What one
might call the Vertical Pedigree. For most of us it is impossible
and always will be to get back even to 1700. Now in 1700, it took
five hundred twelve covertures to start the process which has culminated
in our selves. We each had two parents and they had two
also (2 to the power of 9); each of these marriages may have created
one thousand persons by now. So, if we but listed our 9th
cousins, we have enough labor to last all our lives. These figures
are reduced by cousin marriages and by the fact that some
families somehow succeed in surviving with the minimum number of
offsprings. I deal with one family where a marriage in 1864 has
produced only 4 individuals in one hundred years
My father's family gives an idea of how varied production
can be. A marriage of 1771 produced four sons. One was killed
off early. The eldest son, born 1775, married 1802, has had over
700 descendants. The next brother, born 1778, married 1806,
has 80 descendants. The younger brother, born 1786, married 1818,
(my own great grandfather) has 59 descendants, the last of whom
arrived only this year. So, I suggest that more attention be
paid to "Lateral" pedigrees and that these are more realistic
and that those of us who do not know Latin and French and Gaelic
leave the pre-1642 stuff to the Savants.
Let us here and now counter a genealogical heresy which seems
to be inherent in every beginner in our science; that is, that
persons of the same surname must necessarily be connected in
blood through that name. That is, that all SMITHS must necessarily
be descended from some original SMITH and that he is their
eponymous Ancestor from whom they all derive. But this, of course,
is not so!
At one time, even in Europe, no one had surnames. Even I
have lived in a Moslem country in Asia where only the few Europeans
and the Chinese had surnames. There comes a time in human
development when it no longer suffices to call people merely
"Johnny Redhead', Bill of the Forge," etc. When central taxes are
created, everyone has to be clearly identifiable. So a"Zip Code"
system is started and identifying surnames are attached.
Usually this is started all of a sudden by legislation and
there is a scramble to choose suitable names. Some call themselves
after their physical attributes, as "Long" or "Short."
Some, after their colour as "Green" or "White." In feudal societies
it is natural for a man to want to call himself after his
Feudal Protector or landlord. Thus we have surnames popping up
quite unrelated by blood. In Ireland within the Pale, that is
to say where English Feudal Rule held sway, a Law was passed in
the 14th Century, calling all "mere-Irish" to adopt English customs
and thus surnames.
In my own part of the world, County Kerry, tucked away between
the mountains and the wild and rocky Atlantic, things moved
slowly and the Fiants of Queen Elizabeth (1580) proclaim pardons
to hundreds of persons who, though Gaelic Irish, it is intended to
liberate and make individuals of rather than mere chattels, as
they had been under Tanist customs. Few of these have surnames.
Most are Rickard (mac) Morgan, Maurice son of John, etc. As far
as one can see, only the top echelon, the Tribal Leaders (Chief157
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Texas State Genealogical Society. Stirpes, Volume 6, Number 4, December 1966., periodical, December 1966; Fort Worth, TX. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth29585/m1/39/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Genealogical Society.