Even though it is best practice to consult original documents, parish records can be notoriously difficult to read, especially when the recorder's handwriting is undecipherable. Consequently, many transcription errors are made. The task of decrypting an entry is made even more laborious when abbreviations are used, and there is no indication as to their meaning.
In the records for the Parish of Kinsale, County Cork, many abbreviations are used in recording places of residence. Place-names using an initial 'B.' are not always immediately recognizable. Moreover, a particular abbreviation is not consistent in its signification, and thus requires additional research.
source: National Library of Ireland
In the above example, three place-names begin with 'B'; two show 'B. Road' and one 'B. Gate'. In consulting Guy's Postal Directory for Kinsale (1914), only one 'road' is mentioned, and that is Bandon Road. As such, we can be reasonably confident that B. Road refers to this major thoroughfare. 'B. Gate', on the other hand, refers to Blind Gate. Lastly, W. End indicates World's End. Unfortunately, we are not always this lucky. The place-name, 'B. R.', shown below, could be anywhere.
Frequently, the 'B.' signifies 'Bally', an anglicized rendition of Irish 'baile', which can mean 'place'. In the seventeenth century, 'bally' was often used as a prefix, which was added to an established place-name in order to indicate that it was a townland. [1]. We see this practice below where 'B.' precedes the townlands of Rath More ('B. R. More') and Rath Beg ('B. R. beg'), even though 'bally' is not part of their official place-names.
'B. Regan' refers to the townland of Ballyregan More, a site associated with the Battle of Kinsale in 1601-1602. In the parish record entry shown below, there is no reference to the place-name element, 'More'. This is troublesome, because, when 'Ballyregan' is searched for in the database of townlands, it yields twelve townlands of that name, none of which relates to Kinsale! It can only be found by searching 'Ballyregan More'.
'B. Mills', recorded below, is more straightforward, and refers to the townland of Brown's Mills.
I became interested in this issue during genealogical research relating to a family member, John Fitzpatrick of Kinsale. The record of the baptism of his son, John, found while looking in https://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords showed the following in the search results:
The place-name transcription is 'B RN', which is based on the original shown below.
'B. Rn' or possibly 'B. Roc' are not readily identifiable.
However, further research, using the Tithe Applotment Books (1814-1855), revealed that John Fitzpatrick was a Kinsale blacksmith, whose forge was located on Butcher's Row. As such, the above abbreviation is judged to be a hurried 'B. Row'.
Applotment Book for Kinsale 1850 (click on image to enlarge)
Butcher's Row is also abbreviated as 'Butch Row' in the following:
and can also be seen in a scribbled version below.
This brief survey is nowhere near an exhaustive list, but it does serve as a caution when dealing with transcriptions, and underscores the need for additional research and a lot of perseverance.
[1] Deirdre and Laurence Flanagan, Irish Place Names 1994: 3, 20-26.
