Hereditary surnames found favor in Ireland

It is a little-known fact that, except for ancient Rome, Ireland was the first country to adopt hereditary surnames.

Individual surnames came into use around the 10th century, and by the end of the 12th century, they were universal among Irish families. Beginning in the time of Brian Boru, 1000 A.D., and before the great infusion of Anglo-Norman names, Irish names developed a character of their own, evident to this day.

The Rev. Patrick Woulfe spent 25 years collecting names, communicating with native Irish speakers and studying the different forms of Gaelic to compile the Irish Names and Surnames dictionary.

The book includes a history of Irish names, discussing such topics as the origin and classification of Irish names, foreign names in Ireland, interchange and alternative forms of Irish names, female surnames, Gaelic and Anglo-Norman names, and the anglicizing of Irish names.

The English-Irish section contains 3,500 Christian names and surnames. The English or anglicized form of the name is given, then its Irish form and all variants, followed by the locality in Ireland in which all the forms of the surname are found.

The Irish-English section, containing more than 7,000 entries, gives the original form of the surname and its precise meaning, then its English equivalent, and the former and present location of the name in Ireland.

Besides personal names, there is a section on Irish clan names, which are of great importance in tracing the early history of Irish families.

The 742-page hardbound book, originally published in Dublin in 1923, is available for $50 plus $4 shipping from Genealogical Publishing Co. Inc., 3600 Clipper Mill Road, Suite 260, Baltimore, MD 21211-1953 or by going online to www.genealogical.com.

•The Cleveland County Genealogical Society will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Primrose Funeral Home, 1109 N Porter Ave., Norman.

The program will be "Tips to Avoid Identity Theft.” The meeting is open to the public. For more information, call the society's library at 701-2100 from 1 to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday, or send e-mail to CCGS@csbi.org.

•The Home Community Education Genealogy Group will meet at 10 a.m. Wednesday in the Oklahoma History Center Board Room, 2401 N Laird.

Chester Cowan, photographic archivist for the Oklahoma Historical Society, will speak on "Dating and Preserving Old Photographs.” Cowan will show samples of historic photographs, including daguerreotypes, tintypes and ambrotypes. His discussion will include how to determine the date of a photograph based on the clothing, background and size.

Attendees are welcome to bring historic photographs for Cowan to examine. The meeting is open to the public.

For more information, call Billie Fogarty at 286-1190 or send e-mail to OKheritage seeker@aol.com.

If you have a question, event, idea or an experience you wish to share, e-mail Sharon Burns at sburns@ oklahoman.com.