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My 4x great grandfather Michael Fitzsimmons was from Moynalvey in County Meath, is Moynalvey  said the way it is spelled or is there different way to pronounce it,,Thanks

john

Wednesday 12th Jul 2023, 11:05AM

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  • Moynalvey is part of the parish of Moynalvey and Kiltale which is about 5km from the village of Summerhill, Co. Meath. If you have more details of Michael Fitzsimmons, dates, marriage, family names etc then please post if you need help to trace family. It is pronounced as spelt.

    Eileen

    Wednesday 12th Jul 2023, 06:50PM
  • The townland of Moynalvy is in the civil parish of Kilmore ("Cill Mór" = "big church").  Civil parishes became an administrative district different from the Catholic parishes, which were re-established in more modern times and do not always share the same names as the civil parishes, and are often larger, containing more than one civil parish (or parts of several of them).  You can see more info about the townland at this link:

    https://www.townlands.ie/meath/upper-deece/kilmore/kilmore/moynalvy/

    As already noted, the Catholic parish is called Moynalvey and Kiltale (Kiltale is the name of another civil parish within the Catholic parish), and the parish records which are available online go back to 1783 for marriages and 1811 for baptisms, so you may be able to trace a generation or two further back by searching there.  They are available at this link:

    https://registers.nli.ie/parishes/0936

    Unlike most parishes, in Moynalvey and Kiltale they also have death records from 1811-1881, which ought to be helpful as well.

    Note that the townland name is spelled Moynalvy, without the "e", while the parish name is Moynalvey with the "e" (spelling differences are quite common).  At the link for the townland info, there's a further link to info about the name, and you can see that the Irish form, Maigh nAilbhe, has been anglicized in more than a dozen different ways over the years.  It means "Ailbhe's Plain".  Ailbhe was an old Irish female given name which has been revived in modern times.  It was usually anglicized as Alvy or sometimes Alby.  Oddly enough, since it's a female name, it was sometimes confused with Albert, a name with which it has no actual connection.  Judging by the current spelling, the local pronunciation has likely become "Moy-NAL-vee".  The Irish original is closer to "Mwee-NAL-eh-vuh" or "My-NAL-eh-vuh", depending on the dialect.

     

    kevin45sfl

    Thursday 13th Jul 2023, 04:57PM

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