Re: Susannah Harrity DEVER, Donegal --> NJ
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In reply to:
Re: Susannah Harrity DEVER, Donegal --> NJ
John King 2/26/00
I found John F.King's statements on the Harrity/Herrity spelling interesting. My grandfather's family seem to have used several spelling variations over time. I think that in a time when many people did not read or write, the spelling of a name was probably subjest to the phonetic interpretation of others.
Patrick Heraughty/Herighty/Herrity immigrated to Chicago, and then moved to Scranton, Pa. by 1868.
City Directories list his son John (c. 1866 to c. 1925) as "Herrity" until after world war I, when it seems that the whole family normalized the spelling to Harrity. However, Census records seem to have usually used the "Harrity" spelling.