There is a free online record from the 1840s–1860s (often called the 1850s) listing nearly every land occupier and householder in Ireland. Many Irish family names are on it, and even if yours is not, the same kinds of name-pieces turn up in surnames from many places.
Today we open the landscape words that hide inside surnames, meet one man's name still sitting on a whole county, and ask what a family name once pointed to.
Look at each word pair on the board. Are they family words that mean something similar, do they only look alike with different meanings, or is it just a lookalike trap?
Spot any hill, wood, river or field words that could hide inside a surname.
When your teacher opens a Munster county, help split the Irish name into pieces.
Find Kerry: its Irish name still keeps one man's name, Ciar, on the whole map.
Open your copy. Copy the three surname pieces we spotted:
Then write your surname and one guess about what it once pointed to (a person, a place, or a job), or write who you would ask.
That free 1840s–1860s house-list (often called the 1850s) is still online. Families can sometimes find a matching name on it, and sometimes not; either way the name-pieces stay interesting.
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