Apostrophes Lead to Catastrophes

Irish Voice editor Niall O'Dowd resorted to "giving up his national identity" to book a flight to Atlanta. As often happens, the computer just wouldn't accept an apostrophe.

"I dropped the apostrophe and ran my name as 'ODowd,"' he said.

The Irish apostrophe began with the British, who put it there because they believed the O looked odd without a link to the rest of the name. Many native Gaelic speakers in Ireland refuse to carry an apostrophe, considering it a vestige of colonial days.

"Maybe that's the solution," said O'Dowd, who just last week was rejected by an online alarm clock service. "Maybe we should just drop the apostrophe altogether, not just as a nationalist statement but because I'd like my alarm call to work in the morning." [Link]

[Thanks, Nancy!]

Apostrophic Anger

Out of concern for the integrity of her surname, Margaret C. O'Connor has founded the Society for the Protection of Apostrophes.

I started the SPA because I was frustrated and angered when computers refused to let me enter my whole name. I received threatening messages - "You have input illegal characters" or "You may only enter letters in this field, not numbers or signs".

I do not consider an apostrophe a number or a sign. I am unable to record my leave application in my work system and cannot register for mandatory courses. I have had to use an alias, without an apostrophe, for such basic functions. [Link]

I expect that The Apostrophe Protection Society will spell her name correctly on their cease-and-desist letter.

Transcribers Shouldn't Spell-Check

Connie Lenzen gives some good advice today for genealogists eager to "correct" their ancestors' mistakes: Leave 'em be.

The spelling and punctuation quirks give us a sense of the times when our ancestor was living and when Standard English was different than it is now.

Besides, we may make dreadful errors if we insert commas where they shouldn't be. The ancestor whose will says, "And I leave to my derely belovd children viz: anna mariah jane martha john hennery mary louizer and stephen " did not have nine children. He had five: Anna Mariah, Jane Martha, John Henery, Mary Louizer/Louisa, and Stephen. [Link]

[tagged: genealogy, family tree, ancestry]

Read 'Em and Weep

Taphophile Joe Baker at Irelandclick.com has a good eye for odd inscriptions. He found one in Edinbugh that read "Out haunting," and another in North Belfast with a morbid message and inexplicable punctuation:

Young!
Moulders Here
1829

Even in death, one Oxfordshire gentleman couldn't help but brag of his longevity:

Here Lyes
Stephen Rumbold
He Lived To Ye Age of 100&1
Sanguine & Strong
A Hundred to One
You Don't Live so Long

And then there is Sarah Young of Liverpool, whose love for Christ knew no bounds:

Here Lyeth
Sarah Young
Who went to
Sleep with
Christ
6th Jany 1741

[tagged: genealogy, family tree, ancestry]