Roots Archive
Roots: Gilhooly, Gilmartin, Gillespie, and Gilfoyle
A significant number of Irish names have the prefix “Gil” or “Guil,” including Gilchrist, Gildea,…
Roots: The McCooey Clan
The McCooey surname has Armagh roots, deriving from the Gaelic name Mac Cumhaigh, meaning “son…
Irish Roots: O’Connell, Connolly, Conlon and Connellan
William Connolly The name Connolly is derived from several different roots….
More Articles
Roots: Malone and Moloney
This month’s pair of sound-alike names are Moloney and Malone. As with others that have been featured, they bear no relationship to each other. Moloney is derived from the Gaelic […]
Roots: O’Mahoney, McMahon and Vaughan
The families of McMahon and O’Mahoney are related only by the common derivation of their names from the Irish name Mahon (in Gaelic Mathuna) which was a personal name, meaning […]
Roots: Phelan, Whelan, and Fallon
The origin of the names Phelan and Whelan is an excellent example of the vagaries of Anglicization of Irish names. Both of these names are derived from the same Gaelic […]
“No Man Left Behind”
“No Man Left Behind” is so much more than a slogan to me. In a sense, I contemplate Memorial Day year-round due to my work with the Army. For the […]
Finding Our Roots
For many Irish Americans traveling to the Emerald Isle, the chance to track down family histories and conduct genealogical research is one of the largest draws. Failte Ireland, the National […]
How I Found My Elusive John Murphy
The Deadly Trail that Finally Revealed a Phantom Branch of My Family Tree My earliest American-born ancestor was my great-great-grandfather, Edward Murphy. It took a while to figure this out […]