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Na Gaeil Chicago teacher John Fogarty presents a lecture on Irish language and genealogy at this year's iBAM! program.

 

Irish genealogists complain about the "brick wall" they hit around the year 1800, the years before Catholic parish records were kept. Of note is that inside those brick walls - most of those families spoke Gaelic, the Irish language. In the 18th century, scholars were still learning and writing the language and creating hand-written Irish texts for those who could still read the language.

 

Much of that involved preserving their history and culture, and that included a subject that obsessed the Irish for millennia: genealogy. The surnames and placenames that have come down to us today are all English equivalents of Gaelic originals. This presentation will give a brief introduction to the Irish language, its phonics and pronunciation, in order to help researchers recognize the early dynastic "clann" names, and the later development of fixed family surnames. The structure of Irish placenames will also be discussed, including their clues to the families that lived in them.

 

.Beyond the Brick Wall: Using the Irish Language to Inform Genealogical Research is Saturday at 2:30pm in Room 111.

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