James Hanratty family tree

[gallicrow]

I've made a start on a family tree for James Hanratty on the Family Search website:

https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/G8F1-7BH

(you'll need a free account to view or edit it).
I've only included those of his brothers who have passed away, as you are not supposed to add living people to this site.

There were two minor points of interest:

Firstly, Haratty's father, James Francis Hanratty, gives his year of birth as 1909 rather than 1907 in the 1939 register. Since he was born in Ireland it's not so easy to verify which date is correct.

Secondly, Hanratty has a mysterious initial, R, in the 1939 register. There's no second name listed in any of the other records I've seen for him. At least one book gives his full name as James Francis Hanratty, but I think that's just someone getting his name mixed up with his father's.

[Spitfire]

Is it an "R" or an "L"? Find My Past has it as James L. Do we know where James Snr was born?

[gallicrow]

Do we know where James Snr was born?

The birth place of "Ireland" was something I found on a mostly unsourced family tree on ancestry.

Is it an "R" or an "L"?

I've just spent a few minutes looking at other names on this page, and I'm almost certain that the middle initial in Hanratty's name is indeed an L.
(In particular the L in "Emily L J Warner" a few lines down looks very similar, and I managed to confirm fairly easily that in her case the L stands for Lucy).

[NickB]

The Irish Examiner describes Hanratty as a Drogheda man. I presume they mean that is the town his father comes from.

[Spitfire]

The Irish Examiner describes Hanratty as a Drogheda man. I presume they mean that is the town his father comes from.

Woff agrees with the Drogheda connection, stating that Hanratty Snr left Drogheda when he was 14 years of age, which could be anytime in 1921, 1922, 1923 or 1924.

[Spitfire]

What's in a name?

[cobalt]

I have found American sites to be dubious when researching the origin of names. For me the most even handed one is https://www.surnamedb.com/ Here is its observations on the name Hanratty:

Last name: Hanratty
SDB Popularity ranking: 1718
This uncommon name (O’Hanraghty) is of Gaelic Irish origin, and is a variant of the more familiar surname Hanratty, the Anglicized form of the ancient Gaelic "O'hAnrachtaigh", derived from "anrachtach", unlawful……..
…the invasion of Ireland by the Normans under Strongbow in 1170, the O'Hanraghtys were forced to move westwards into County Monaghan, and in the 12th Century they settled near what is now the town of Castleblaney. The modern forms of the surname are Hanratty, Hanretty, Henratty and Henretty.

The political context presumably explains the link with ‘unlawful’ since The Hanratty’s would have been termed ‘’insurgents’ by the Norman invaders.