Old New Paltz Day - Historic Huguenot Street

This Saturday, 30 May 2009, the Historic Huguenot Society will be holding its annual Old New Paltz Day from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm.

One of the best events of the day, in my opinion, is the ability to tour all of the historic houses along Brodhead Avenue for just $7.00! Last October I posted about the visit to the Freer-Low House which was built by Hugo Freer, Sr. who was my 9th great-grandfather. On my last visit, the standard tour allows you access to only two of the historic homes and usually it is the choice of the tour group members.

In addition to the expanded house tour, there is a genealogy booth called Footsteps of Our Founders. If you have LeFevre, DuBois, Hasbrouck, Terwilliger, Bevier, Elting, Deyo, Freer, Gerow, Magny or Schoonmaker ancestors you should consider a visit. Genealogists will be on hand to answer questions and there is even a genealogy form you can fill-out ahead of time to assist with your query.

To learn more visit the Historic Huguenot Society's website.

13th Edition of Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture Posted!

In case you did hear - stopy by Smallest-leaved Shamrock and settle in for some great reading at the 13th Edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture.

The theme this time around is Irish Families: Their Names, Arms, and Origins. Lisa had a great turnout with almost 50 surnames covered - from Aylward to Wade.

There would have been more had I not forgotten to submit my own entry You Say MacEntee, I Say McEntee which I posted earlier in the week.

And don't forget that Lisa has already announced the themes and submission deadlines for the 14th and 15th editions:

- Plan to join us for the upcoming 14th edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture. The topic will be Irish Vacations and it will be hosted by Colleen Degnan Johnson. For details visit Upcoming 14th edition: Let's go to Ireland! Irish Vacations on the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture blog. Deadline for this upcoming edition is Friday, July 10, 2009. Hope to see you there!

- Also plan ahead to join us for the 2nd Annual Small-leaved Shamrock Summer Reading Challenge. A compilation of the books read by participants will be the topic for the 15th edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture. Last year's edition, Looking into the heart of Ireland, introduced us to quite a varied assortment of reading material on Ireland and the Irish. Get started now on your summer reading so that you can join us and share what you've read by August 30, 2009. Details can be found at Upcoming 15th edition: 2nd Annual Small-leaved Shamrock Summer Reading Challenge on the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture blog.

copyright 2009 Thomas MacEntee

You Say MacEntee, I Say McEntee

[This post was written for the 13th Edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture hosted at Small-leaved Shamrock.]

I think it is a bit of coincidence that just this week a distant MacEntee cousin whom I met on Facebook asked me why my paternal grandfather's name is also listed as McEntee. And here I am to tell the story just as the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture is coming to town!

Most of what I know about the MacEntee surname is all family legend - it has been on my genealogy "to do list" to actually determine the "why" behind the name change from McEntee to MacEntee. Here is the information that I have about my surname, its origins and how it came to its present spelling:

- the name means "son of scholar" and in Gaelic is written as Mac an tSoi

- the name is found mostly in County Armagh and County Monaghan in Ireland

- my grandfather Abraham MacEntee almost always used the name McEntee with the "a" added

- it was Abraham's father - Elmer McEntee - who supposedly began using MacEntee for reasons which are not clear

- some say that local folk in Ulster County, New York pronounced the name as a "Mac" name anyway and he decided to change it - not legally - but through usage

- others say that due to anti-Irish sentiment present at the time in turn-of-the-century New York, the "a" was added to make the name appear as Scottish in origin

- and still others talk of a rift between two McEntee brothers over religion, that one became a Protestant and wanted to show the separation by adding the "a"

I've discussed the usage of MacEntee in a previous post and have been able to prove that it was in fact Elmer McEntee who originated the usage.

So I continue through a search of court and probate records, wills, etc. to see if any further information can be gleaned as to the "why" of the name change from McEntee to MacEntee.

My Genealogy Bumper Stickers

Randy Seaver over at Genea-Musings has another fun activity for us this Saturday evening: create a bumper sticker using 12 words or less to describe your favorite passion. Of course, that passion is genealogy and family history so here goes:

"Well at least my family tree forks!"

"Shake my family tree and you'll find some nuts!"

"Genealogy: are my roots are showing?"

"I dig dead people."

"I'd rather be at the archives!"

"We're probably related. But I'm the prettier one, right?"

"I have a 2nd cousin once removed. Can I remove some others?"

One Lovely Blog Award

I want to send out a big thank you to both Greta of Greta's Genealogy Blog and Gini of Ginisology for awarding me the One Lovely Blog Award!  I appreciate the shout out and what a nice welcome back to the world of geneablogging after a short break!

Now I know with some of these awards I am supposed to "tag" other bloggers but I think almost all of the geneabloggers have been tagged already!

Springing back . . .

to life! I've just gotten over a bad cold plus I made a trip home to New York to visit with Mom. I had not seen her since the end of October so it was a nice visit although this was the first time that she didn't recognize me. I always knew there would come a time in the progression of her Alzheimer's Disease when it would happen but nothing can really prepare you for that moment.

I will be ramping back up with new posts here, at Facebook Bootcamp and on Geneabloggers. Stay tuned.