As I have commented before (see my posting on Name Variants), surnames can be mispelled or can evolve according to local pronunciation. So when searching for our ancesters, or conducting a one-name study, it's necessary to look for records with variant spellings of the name. There are many instances of where CONDRON has evolved to say CONDRAN or CONDREN, or vice versa. It may change our understanding (one day!) of how our family surnames CONDR*N originated.
Sometimes it's claimed that CONDON and CONDRON are variants of the same name. So for example, it's not possible to set up a new DNA group at FamilyTreeDNA.com to study CONDR*N (as far as I know, I haven't actually tried), because the owner of the CONDON DNA Group Project has set up the project on the presumption that the names CONDON, CONDREN, CONDRON, CONGDON and CONRON are all connected.
So my question for readers of this blog is, does anyone have any well-documented example of the family name CONDON changing permanently to CONDRON (for example, when the family migrated from one country to another)? I don't mean an occasional misspelling - I have examples of where baptism records of a family sometimes spelled the name CONDON and sometimes CONDRON, apparently almost at random - but a permanent change. I'm skeptical that these names are connected, but probably someone reading this will correct me!
Similarly, does anyone have a well-documented example of CONRAN changing permanently to CONDRAN, or CONRON to CONDRON in their family tree? I think it's far more likely that such transitions have occurred, because putting a "D" in (or taking one out) might make the name more pronounceable. But I cannot see how a local pronunciation would lead to inserting an "R". So I think CONRAN, CONDRAN, CONRON, CONDRON are connected, but that CONDON and CONDRON are not. But I could be wrong, so .... .
If you have an example, please send it to me at Condran[AT]one-name.org (replace the [AT] with an @ sign), or post here using the Comment facility. Or post to FaceBook.
I look forward to hearing from you!
Showing posts with label Name variants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Name variants. Show all posts
Tuesday, 13 March 2012
Thursday, 24 November 2011
Name variants
Today is the Thanksgiving holiday, so first of all Happy Thanksgiving to all U.S. Condrans, Condrens, Condrins and Condrons! I don't know exactly how many people that is, but at the time of the 1930 census (the most recent U.S. census to be publicly viewable), the index on ancestry.com shows there were 1488 people in the U.S.A. with the name CONDR?N (where ? stands for any one letter), namely 226 CONDRANs, 336 CONDRENs, 31 CONDRINs and 906 CONDRONs. (The reason these numbers don't add up to exactly 1488 is presumably that a few entries have been indexed under more than one spelling.)
As this one-name study has developed, I have realized that surnames can often be misspelled, and that names people go by can evolve according to local pronunciations etc. particularly in the nineteenth century and earlier, before widespread literacy. I do still regard CONDON as a distinct name different from the ones under study here (even though CONDRON can sometimes be misspelled in the records as CONDON). But the following name variants can I think all be considered to be related, and therefore relevant to this one-name study. I have grouped them according to their being most common, uncommon, rare, and then those instances that possibly only occur as misspellings.
Most common
CONDREN, CONDRON, CONRAN
Uncommon
CONDRAN, CONRON
Rare
CONARON, CONDERAN, CONDRIN, CON(N)ERAN, CON(N)ORAN, CONRYN
Possibly only occur as misspellings
CONARAN, CONDERON, CONDORAN, CONDORON, CONDRUN, CONERIN, CON(N)ERON, CONORON, CONREN, CONRIN
I stand ready to be corrected!
It is interesting to speculate whether CONDRON and CONRAN, for instance, are more ancient in usage than CONDRAN, say, and if so whether CONDRAN is a corruption deriving originally from CONDRON or from CONRAN.
So to summarize, the names whose instances need to be collected in pre-twentieth century records in order to try to understand present-day distributions and origins of CONDRANs, CONDRENs, CONDRINs and CONDRONs are of the form CON*R?N, where ? is a single letter and * is any number of letters (including none); but excluding names of the form CONC*R?N which I consider to be distinct from those under study here. In searching indices etc. for possibly occurrences of the study names, I use these searches with the wildcards * and ? when the search engines permit:
CONA*R?N
COND*R?N
CONE*R?N
CONN*R?N
CONO*R?N
CONR?N
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
As this one-name study has developed, I have realized that surnames can often be misspelled, and that names people go by can evolve according to local pronunciations etc. particularly in the nineteenth century and earlier, before widespread literacy. I do still regard CONDON as a distinct name different from the ones under study here (even though CONDRON can sometimes be misspelled in the records as CONDON). But the following name variants can I think all be considered to be related, and therefore relevant to this one-name study. I have grouped them according to their being most common, uncommon, rare, and then those instances that possibly only occur as misspellings.
Most common
CONDREN, CONDRON, CONRAN
Uncommon
CONDRAN, CONRON
Rare
CONARON, CONDERAN, CONDRIN, CON(N)ERAN, CON(N)ORAN, CONRYN
Possibly only occur as misspellings
CONARAN, CONDERON, CONDORAN, CONDORON, CONDRUN, CONERIN, CON(N)ERON, CONORON, CONREN, CONRIN
I stand ready to be corrected!
It is interesting to speculate whether CONDRON and CONRAN, for instance, are more ancient in usage than CONDRAN, say, and if so whether CONDRAN is a corruption deriving originally from CONDRON or from CONRAN.
So to summarize, the names whose instances need to be collected in pre-twentieth century records in order to try to understand present-day distributions and origins of CONDRANs, CONDRENs, CONDRINs and CONDRONs are of the form CON*R?N, where ? is a single letter and * is any number of letters (including none); but excluding names of the form CONC*R?N which I consider to be distinct from those under study here. In searching indices etc. for possibly occurrences of the study names, I use these searches with the wildcards * and ? when the search engines permit:
CONA*R?N
COND*R?N
CONE*R?N
CONN*R?N
CONO*R?N
CONR?N
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Sunday, 7 September 2008
End of summer
This blog has been inactive over the summer, but I have been adding sporadically to my database of CONDR*N records and had a very enjoyable trip to Ireland a two weeks ago, visiting Co. Offaly for a couple of days and doing some extraction of CONDR*N records in the National Library of Ireland and General Register Office in Dublin for a couple of days prior to that. In Tullamore, Co. Offaly, I was even able to pop in to the Condron Concrete Works!
I was asked recently whether I am also interested in the name CONDERN. This is a new one to me, but the answer is yes! At present I am capturing all records of surnames COND*R*N (where * is a wildcard representing 0 or more characters), since I believe these names were probably used and recorded somewhat interchangeably. I realise that our CONDR*N forbears may also have dropped the "D" so in the future intend to collect CON(D)*R*N (so including CONRAN and CONRON) though this is on the back-burner for now.
Similar names that I am NOT studying include CONDON, CONDROY, CONDROW, CONDRY, CORCORAN as I don't believe them to be connected (though occasionally they may arise through transcription errors).
The Irish Family History Foundation (IFHF) has continued to add to its online indices of records (see my blog of 5 April 2008) which is great. Various counties now have indices to extant census records as well as to parish records. The records from Irish Midlands Ancestry for Cos Offaly and Leix (King's and Queen's Counties) are not yet online, but I had a very encouraging conversation with someone in the centre at Tullamore when I popped in while I was in Co. Offaly. He said that the parish records have all now been prepared for uploading and could appear in "as little as a few weeks" or longer: it now depends only on the paperwork being sorted out with the IFHF. This is good news and I hope that the IFHF and Irish Midlands Ancestry will now get the records online very soon.
I was asked recently whether I am also interested in the name CONDERN. This is a new one to me, but the answer is yes! At present I am capturing all records of surnames COND*R*N (where * is a wildcard representing 0 or more characters), since I believe these names were probably used and recorded somewhat interchangeably. I realise that our CONDR*N forbears may also have dropped the "D" so in the future intend to collect CON(D)*R*N (so including CONRAN and CONRON) though this is on the back-burner for now.
Similar names that I am NOT studying include CONDON, CONDROY, CONDROW, CONDRY, CORCORAN as I don't believe them to be connected (though occasionally they may arise through transcription errors).
The Irish Family History Foundation (IFHF) has continued to add to its online indices of records (see my blog of 5 April 2008) which is great. Various counties now have indices to extant census records as well as to parish records. The records from Irish Midlands Ancestry for Cos Offaly and Leix (King's and Queen's Counties) are not yet online, but I had a very encouraging conversation with someone in the centre at Tullamore when I popped in while I was in Co. Offaly. He said that the parish records have all now been prepared for uploading and could appear in "as little as a few weeks" or longer: it now depends only on the paperwork being sorted out with the IFHF. This is good news and I hope that the IFHF and Irish Midlands Ancestry will now get the records online very soon.
Sunday, 23 March 2008
Surname challenge
I have today added a downloadable list of all CONDRANs, CONDRENs and CONDRONs from Griffiths Valualtion of Ireland to the Condran One-Name Study website. Griffiths Valuation was the outcome of a survey by Sir Richard Griffiths, Ireland's Commissioner of Valuation. The survey was used to determine the amount of tax each person should pay. This involved determining the value of all privately held lands and buildings in rural as well as urban areas to figure the rate at which each unit of property could be rented year after year. The resulting survey was arranged by barony and civil parish with an index to the townlands appearing in each volume. Griffith's Valuation can be used as an excellent census substitute for the years after the Great Famine as censuses prior to 1901 were destroyed. These data from the index to Griffiths Valuation were extracted using the excellent site http://www.failteromhat.com. Unfortunately this site does not give all information that is available in Griffiths Valuation (in particular "description of tenement"). If anyone can tell me where on the web I can find these additional details, or if anyone can send those to me for the CONDR*Ns listed in Griffiths Valuation, I would be most grateful.
I had an email recently from Bill Conran of Reno, Nevada. Among several interesting pieces of information Bill shared with me was that a Philip CONRAN was mayor of Dublin in 1593. Bill asks whether my line been traced to a Conerain or O'Conerain founding father, and whether I have Church of Ireland or Quaker ancestors or were they Catholic? On the latter point, I don't know for my own ancestors but it is noteworthy that in the 1911 census of Dublin where religion is recorded all the CONDR*Ns are Roman Catholic. Of course, non-Catholics may have emigrated. It would be interesting to hear what religious faiths other people's CONDR*N ancestors were.
As for Bill's first question, for my own family line the answer is not as yet. But it's a very good question, so here's the Surname Challenge: has anyone out there with CONDRAN/CONDRON or CONRAN/CONRON forebears traced their line to a CONERAIN or O'CONERAIN ?
I had an email recently from Bill Conran of Reno, Nevada. Among several interesting pieces of information Bill shared with me was that a Philip CONRAN was mayor of Dublin in 1593. Bill asks whether my line been traced to a Conerain or O'Conerain founding father, and whether I have Church of Ireland or Quaker ancestors or were they Catholic? On the latter point, I don't know for my own ancestors but it is noteworthy that in the 1911 census of Dublin where religion is recorded all the CONDR*Ns are Roman Catholic. Of course, non-Catholics may have emigrated. It would be interesting to hear what religious faiths other people's CONDR*N ancestors were.
As for Bill's first question, for my own family line the answer is not as yet. But it's a very good question, so here's the Surname Challenge: has anyone out there with CONDRAN/CONDRON or CONRAN/CONRON forebears traced their line to a CONERAIN or O'CONERAIN ?
Thursday, 21 February 2008
Changes in surnames
Surnames can and do change over the generations, meaning that some lateral thinking may be required to succeed in tracing our ancesters to earlier generations. This is well illustrated by Karen Conderan's family. I am grateful to Karen for sharing the following information. Karen's great-great-grandfather was John CONRAN of County Carlow, Ireland. John CONRAN's son Patrick emigrated to Canada. There his name appears under a variety of spellings in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century directory listings. Finally it appears as CONDERAN which it has been consistently since. Having run into a brick wall tracing her family back before Patrick, Karen was fortunate to find baptismal records for Patrick CONDERAN and his brother James showing CONRAN as the original spelling of their surname. So as Karen says, we should really consider all the possible variations in spelling - an extra letter after the D, and especially dropping the letter D - if we run into a dead end. It worked for her!
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