In this article, we look at Irish Surnames – their origins and evolution. See if you can find the Irish surnames in your family tree in one of the sections below.

Tracking Down a Reader Surname in Ireland.

Readers often contact me wondering where a particular ancestor or surname is likely to have originated in Ireland. Sometimes I can give a direct answer – but sometimes the answer is “it depends”. The following conversation features one of those surnames that originated in many different locations in Ireland. Here we have Kathleen Brennan from…

Have you Visited the Irish Famine Museum?

A couple of weeks ago, we were on an Irish road-trip around the north-west counties of the island. One of the most striking locations was a place called Strokestown Park House in County Roscommon. And that is the focus of our letter today. The Strokestown Park estate sits in the middle of 11,000 acres in…

From County Roscommon to Prince Edward Island

A new take on our traditional Irish Homelands feature. We start by looking at the Irish ancestral county of origin for one of our members and then travel overseas to the place where they immigrated. We start by linking County Roscommon with Prince Edward Island in the maritime region of Canada.

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Four Irish-Canadian Stories

When we look at Irish surnames today, it’s easy to get confused when we see names that appear to have several different spellings, some look very English or Scottish – how could they be Irish you ask – while other names appear to randomly have an “O” or “Mac” in front of them. Before We…