Anglicised names vs Irish names in family trees

[KitHannay]

Hi all.

A lot of my maternal ancestors came from rural Donegal and would have spoken exclusively in Irish at home. I can see in the 1901 census one family in particular spoke only Irish. By 1911, as the older children began to go to school, they were able to speak 'Irish and English.' One of these children was Brigid, my great-grandmother and I know from speaking with my mother that even though Brigid could speak perfect English, Irish was her first language and the one she spoke in to her family.

Despite this, all the official records (birth, marriage and death, Census' etc) record her with an anglicised version of her name (ie. Bridget/Brigid McGinely). The same can be seen for her parents (who were illiterate).

I'm beginning to wonder if I should record these ancestors in my tree using their Irish names as opposed to the anglicised versions? So for example, Brigid's father Patrick McGinley would be Pádraig Mag Fhionnghaile. I know it ultimately comes down to whatever I want to do myself, but I am curious as to what other genealogists think or have done in their own trees? Given what happened to the Irish language, and that I'm trying very hard to improve my own Irish, I think it could be a really nice recognition of how these ancestors would have lived...but as I say, I've never seen their names recorded in Irish anywhere.

What are your thoughts??

[CBGenealogy]

I'd leave them in English. This way people will find matches to your tree. If they're in Irish, you run the risk that very limited numbers of people will be able to decipher.
You could always do an "aka" for the Irish version.

[JACK GEE]

Why not bracket the names together? You honour your ancestors and allow 'nuffies' like me to see the anglisized versions.
Not everyone has the ability to understand the Irish language or the time to chase a translation for each name.

Good luck on your genie journey.

Cheers
Jack Gee

[Cas (stallc)]

I'd leave them in English. This way people will find matches to your tree. If they're in Irish, you run the risk that very limited numbers of people will be able to decipher.
You could always do an "aka" for the Irish version.

I would agree with above, if you have an online tree and looking to connect with related families, anglicised names would be best.  As that would be the records most would access.

If your tree is only personal to you, or your not into finding connections, I would have both. One to link anglicised records, and the Irish version to uphold the language and your heritage.

Cas

[Wexflyer]

Not everyone has the ability to understand the Irish language or the time to chase a translation for each name.

I can never understand this.

Why do Irish names need to be "translated"?

[brigidmac]

Don't bracket or use annotations if on ancestry
Use the "otherwise known as "
Option
Matches should show up to both options then

Or you could use Brigid
Bridget as middle name but don't use slash as punctuation confuses ancestry

[brigidmac]

Personally although only my name is Irish I would prefer to use the Irish name first and the angliscized version as the otherwise known as

It shows that you have done your own research and it's a way of counterbalancing the years of English oppression

Agree with wexflyer names should not have to be translated whether Irish or any other Language ..it's a colonial attitude .

[california dreamin]

Really? I have spent years looking for a woman with the surname 'Cullinan' only to find out the anglicised version was 'Holly' or 'Hollywood'. Knowing this I have opened up more research options. Of two brothers in the family one used the name 'Cullinan' the other 'Hollywood'. They accepted the duality of the situation and therefore so do I.

CD

[brigidmac]

 California dreamin . how have you put her on your tree

Btw Hollywood is a totally different name not an angliscized version


My great grandfather is George Jacob FELLMAN in all the records that I have * so I only know his angliscized name

  but I have seen  Latvia/ Russian/Jewish records for his father and siblings
They have angliscized versions of names in school records and  when emigrated to USA have "American " or new start versions of their names
For example Sister born Sorre was Sara in England & Celia in USA

Her American descendants refer to her as Celia but I didn't know that had become her usual name until I saw a USA census

The also known as option makes it easier to find relatives who are using different versions of the name