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Re: Origin of Irish Sinclairs: Sinclair -> Nokaird?????



Neil,

Thanks for the kind note.  Curiously enough, my Scots-Irish forebears always
thought of themselves as Scots rather than Irish. They thought of Scotland
as their true homeland, even to the extent of urging (insisting, actually)
that their children and grandchildren take up the pipes. This, even though
(my surmise) their family had lived in Ireland for at least a couple
centuries. The records in the Bushmills area seem to peter out as you begin
to push back into the 18th century, so I can't be sure when they got there.

My impression is that today most residents of Northern Ireland seem
perfectly comfortable being referred to as Irish. (at least my cousins feel
that way) I suppose my early forebear's attitude had more to do with the
need in late nineteenth century America for Uster-baorn Irish to distance
themselves from the "other" Irish.  Strange how cultural mores morph with
time!

Thanks,

 Joe Erkes
******************************

> Dear Joe;
> First let me compliment you on the many fine ideas, thoughts and perceptions
> that you have shared with the list. While my projects do not allow me time
> to post to the list a lot, I do read with interest the wisdom you and all
> the others are sharing.
> 
> Turning to the issue of the Argyll Sinclairs your ideas are correct in that
> there is a lot of commonality between the Irish Sinclairs and the Argyll
> Sinclairs. As a short synopsis to the list, in early 1700 Mc'Nokiard was a
> common name and roughly translated means craftsman or tinkerer. Now when
> registration became more common followiing 1720 for births, a lot of
> Sinclairs became registered all through Argyll and surrounding parishes. Why

[ Excess quotations omitted. ]


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