In a message dated 12/28/97 8:18:54 PM, CASSIDY-D-request(a)rootsweb.com wrote:
<<I haven't done too much research on my Irish side of the family, a now
deceased family member did most of the older work years ago.
On this site I note the two main spelling differences CASSIDY and
CASSADY. My family uses the Cassidy spelling. Are these two families from
different sections of Ireland? Does anyone know the significance of the
different spellings???
Bill
>
Its all really the same name.
The original Gaelic spelling of the name was O Caiside, pronounced something
close to Cash-a-day. With differences in the way people say things and the
way clerks, ships' stewards, ministers/priests, and immigration officials hear
things, differing spellings creep in.
Remember, (1) spelling was "casual" (and even creative) until pretty recently.
(2) most of our ancestors were illiterate not too many generations back. Many
probably didn't know how to spell their name at all.
Sometimes a name was spelled one way, then someone goes off to war and the
enlisting officer (who is barely literate himself) spells it the way he thinks
it should be, and that fella and his descendants keep the spelling. Sometimes
you get different spellings even within the same family this way as one
brother writes it one way and one another. Sometimes you can find records
referring to the same person with different spellings, too.
As if genealogy wasn't confusing enough!
Janet C-S