What is the surname in this record?

Question

I have a problem whose resolution presently seems to depend on correctly interpreting a single surname on a document. Most of the document is written in an amazingly clear hand, but this one surname is not.

The particular research task I'm working on is to identify my wife's 2g-grandmother, known to us as Johanna McDonald. Most genealogical profiles I've encountered list her as Johanna O'Donald, but provide no source information. I actually think both of those surnames are wrong. The only record I've yet found that shows her name is the marriage of her daughter, Ellen Fenton, which lists the parents of both the bride and the groom. I suspect that people are interpreting her surname on this record as McDonald, and sometimes "guessing" that that implies an original Irish surname of O'Donald.

In the record, the surname of the groom's mother is clearly indicated as McDonald, and a quick glance at Johanna's own surname on this document might cause one to conclude that it, too, is McDonald. A more careful look shows that it definitely doesn't match the script of the McDonald of the groom's mother's name. An even closer look makes it clear that this surname is written in a different hand than the rest of the marriage license. I *think* it matches the handwriting of the actual marriage attestation below the license, but I'm not certain.

So I have two questions. What do others think this surname is? And I would be grateful for any suggestions for determining it more certainly. For example, if I think the handwriting is that of the Smyth who apparently performed the ceremony, I might search the entire marriage database (by, ugh, hand) for other certificates with his handwriting providing letter samples that could help interpret this one, and I might research that church to see if he was a clergyman there, in which case I might find other documents in his handwriting.

Any suggestions are welcome. A link to the record in question is: https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/61335/images/47291_552535-00025?pId=1500155194. The record in question is the one on the left.

Rudy

Comments

McDonnell, or McConnell.

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Thanks. I can certainly see "nnell" as a likely possibility. The first two letters seem pretty questionable to me, though both of the names you suggest are common and fit the part that seems clear. Do you have any suggestions for steps I could take to be more sure, other than the approach I suggested for getting more handwriting samples from the scribe (who may also be the clergyman)?

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I’d go with McDonnell.

Answer 1

Note the underscore of the c; the first part of the name could then be written Mac. The second looks to me to be Dunnell, so the complete name would be MacDunnell (and there are people who carry this name.) The "D" in MacDunnell is odd, however. The first stroke looks just like the "D" in McDonald, but the rest is different and the handwriting on the MacDunnell clearly differs from that in the remainder of the document.

Comments

Thanks, David.

This is definitely an Irish family, so I was expecting Mc, rather than Mac. McDunnell is interesting. It's hard for me to see enough strokes here to generate all of "unn", but that certainly seems like another possibility. Guess I'll need to try marriage searches on James Fenton and Johanna <each of these names>. Thanks to all for the help.

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It's very clearly Mc not Mac.

I don't think it's Dunnell, either.  The letter next to the Initial we're concerned with being either D or C is (to me) clearly an o, not a u.
Whoever wrote the name in, had a distinctive way of writing a capital D (because I really think it IS a D), that I could reproduce in essence if I could make it so you can see my hand drawing it in the air.  

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Perhaps.  For three generations my family understood Mc with the c raised and underscored to mean Mac. The first letter (D or C) to me looks to be two different hands.  As I said, the first stroke seems identical to the first stroke on the D of the earlier name that clearly is McDonald.  The second stroke might well, as you assert, have been intended to convert that to a C.  The letter following the D or C looks more like a U than a C to me.

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Thanks, everyone, for think about the possibilities. I'm glad to have the generous folks here on WikiTree as a helping hand from time to time. :)