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- Newsgroups: soc.roots
- Path: sparky!uunet!mcsun!ieunet!tcdcs!maths.tcd.ie!pwaldron
- From: pwaldron@maths.tcd.ie (Paddy Waldron)
- Subject: Re: Marker Names
- Message-ID: <1992Nov24.012615.15935@maths.tcd.ie>
- Keywords: BLACKALL, BURNELL, CLANCY, Marcella.
- Organization: Dept. of Maths, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
- References: <ROOTS-L%92112312574763@VM1.NODAK.EDU>
- Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1992 01:26:15 GMT
- Lines: 52
-
- In article <ROOTS-L%92112312574763@VM1.NODAK.EDU> Sharon L Palmateer <ASDSLP@ALBNYVM1.BITNET> writes:
- >Let me add my agreement to Alicia Towster's comments on 'marker names'.
-
- I will add my $0.02 worth in support of the `marker name' theory:
-
- Some time ago, I developed the hypothesis that almost everyone born in
- county Clare and bearing the `marker name' Marcella is descended from
- George BLACKALL and Marcella BURNELL who married in 1782 and lived in
- Killard, county Clare. Marcella is a name I have heard of in other
- parts of the world but not often in rural Ireland. With PAF on a
- PC, I was able to focus on about two dozen Marcellas in a
- database of 6000+ names, mostly from county Clare, and
- maybe 1000 descended from the aforementioned couple. Sure enough,
- all the Marcellas except one satisfied my hypothesis, and for all I know
- further investigation might reveal that she is not an exception at all.
- Some of these Marcellas are as young as teenagers, so the `marker name'
- theory has stood the test of time for over two centuries, during which
- the male line has all but died out, certainly in Clare, with one or
- two exceptions in Ireland, but possibly not in Australia and elsewhere.
- During this time also, the family have gone from substantial landlords
- to mostly very ordinary citizens and the family seat in Killard has
- disappeared. (An uncle of President Mary ROBINSON is married to one
- of the descendants!)
-
- My GGGGfather, Hugh CLANCY, married a daughter of George BLACKALL and
- Marcella BURNELL. I have a letter written in 1945 by Hugh's greatgranddaughter
- in which she says essentially `my father [then 85 years old] is getting
- absent minded but he says his grandmother was Catherine BLACKALL.'
- I have other reasons to believe that Catherine, daughter of George BLACKALL
- and Marcella BURNELL, married Owen or Charles KEANE. Yesterday, I
- was given a copy of the Co. of Clare List of Freeholders For The Year 1821.
- It includes Hugh CLANCY, who held a lease, registered 24 Feb 1818, for
- the life of `Marsella BLACKALL otherwise CLANCY'. The `marker name' theory
- leads me to conclude that I have solved the mystery of the two
- Catherine BLACKALLs and that this means `Marsella BLACKALL who
- married CLANCY', although the reverse interpretation `Marsella
- CLANCY who married BLACKALL' might seem more natural. Until I
- find whether the 1818 lease is still extant, maybe someone
- out there would like to advise whether I should infer that Hugh
- CLANCY married Marcella BLACKALL, daughter of George BLACKALL and
- Marcella BURNELL, possibly even on 24 Feb 1818. I had never wondered
- before whether George and Marcella gave the `marker name' Marcella
- to one of their own daughters!
-
- If there is anyone else out there descended from George BLACKALL and
- Marcella BURNELL, I would be delighted to hear from you.
-
- --
- Paddy Waldron, Department of Economics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, IRELAND.
-
- pwaldron@tcd.ie Telephone:
- pwaldron@maths.tcd.ie +353 1 702 1667
-