Spoken like a native!

I've been reading with interest Bill West's series of posts entitled "Speak Like a Native New Englander" over at West in New England. Bill, who hails from the Boston area, is giving us an introduction to interesting pronunciations of names around New England.

Thought you knew how to pronounce "ham"? Think again.

You've heard of Milan and Berlin, I'm sure, but you may not know that they have namesakes in New Hampshire. And guess what: they are not pronounced Mil-AHN and Bur-LIN.

Leominster looks easy enough to say, but you might be surprised how the locals pronounce it.

So far Bill has posted three editions of his series with more to come. You might also be interested in a few other posts he has written about New England names. Take the one on the lake called Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg, for instance. Now that's a name only a native could love!

"Dusty, crumbling, smelly, irreplaceable documents and books"

Don't you just love the library? It is truly irreplaceable, as Anthony Grafton mentions in his November 2007 article on The New Yorker website entitled Future Reading: Digitization and its discontents. I've written about his article and my own love for libraries on 100 Years in America within my post entitled: On libraries: "the narrower path".

As far as libraries go, the Boston Public Library is one of the best. It has an extensive number of genealogy resources not to mention its other collections.

As you may have learned if you read my "Mazes, windings and turnings": a little digression on maps, I appreciate a good diversion into the world of cartography. The Boston Public Library's Norman B. Levelthal Map Center is currently displaying an exhibit entitled Boston and Beyond: A Bird's Eye View of New England. As the BPL press release states:

As the high-flying observer looks down as though from 2,500 feet on the mapped area, the town “below” appears in a kind of historical snapshot, revealing factories, homes, parks, churches and cemeteries, and even architectural details. The story that unfolds is of the growing economic vitality and urbanization of Boston and the New England region while America matured into a late 19th century global giant. The Boston area craftsmen who made these elaborate images were the leaders of the bird’s eye view vogue and the exhibit will showcase their diaries, field sketch notes, and manuscript drawings.

Take a virtual tour of Boston and Beyond via the Norman B. Leventhal website. The city has changed alot over the years, as I mentioned in my earlier post Boston's Big Dig: another one for the history books. This map exhibit will run through June 2008. Hope you'll get a chance to visit!

Whether or not you're in the Boston area, take some time this summer to enjoy a few "dusty, crumbling, smelly, irreplaceable" written treasures from your own local libraries.

Image of the vintage Boston Public Library postcard courtesy of USGenWeb's Penny Postcards website. The site also has many more vintage Massachusetts postcards.

Return to your Tipperary roots: August 2008

Back in the 16th and 17th-centuries, Ireland's County Tipperary was a much different place than it is today. The county had come into existence under the reign of King John as far back as 1210 A.D. Its name is Tiobraid Árann in Irish, meaning the "well of Árann" (Árann was an adjoining territory).

Four-hundred years ago Irish chiefs and chieftains still ruled as overlords in Tipperary. The O'Kennedys, in particular, were a powerful military clan and ruled over underchieftans such as the O'Tierney clan, who paid a fee to receive protection from the O'Kennedys while they ruled their own small territory.

This summer that time period in Tipperary's history will be remembered by a reunion of the various clans mentioned in the several hundred year-old Ormond Deeds, a set of documents which sheds light on the lives of those who lived in Tipperary so many centuries ago.

According to the webpage of the Clan Gathering 2008 on the website of the Tierney Clans Society (Cumann na gClann Ui Thighearnaigh):

This time we are departing from the ‘traditional’ format and are hosting a ‘joint venture’ Gathering with a number of Ormond Clans who are linked in history by references in an historic body of documents titled ‘The Ormond Deeds’. These documents describe transactions and contain transcripts of deeds and agreements between the leading families of the Baronies of Upper and Lower Ormond. They were maintained in Kilkenny Castle by the Earls of Ormond. The documents contain transactions between The O’Tierney, O’Kennedy and O’Meara Clans and are witnessed by members of the MacEgan and O’Meagher Clans. It is these Clans that are now cooperating in the organising of this great Gathering.

The Clan Rally will take place August 22-24, 2008 in the Nenagh area of County Tipperary, Ireland.

For more info go to the Clan Gathering 2008 webpage. You may register to participate via this registration form.