Is it possible that that G or GO were added in US or along the way. I did a google search for Gonelligan and came up with Zero. Then I tried O'Nelligan and came up with several. Likewise with Nelligan. Perhaps someone has a better answer than I do, but it is a thought. Pat --- barbara bosy <dollar2penny@yahoo.com> wrote: > Does anybody know of people surnames in Ireland > Name Gonelligan I can't to seem to find them > anywhere even though i know they came from > Ireland.That would help out a lot. Thank you . > > > ==== IRISH-AMERICAN Mailing List ==== > The IRISH-AMERICAN Mailing List Website and Lookup > Service > http://www.connorsgenealogy.com/IrishAmerican/ > Use this to unsub, change your subscription, links, > etc. > > __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - 100MB free storage! http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail
Dear Barbara, I think Pat Procida and Mamme53196 may be on the right track. I've checked my surname books and the closest construction is Ó Niallagáin ('O'Nelligan'). In Irish Gaelic genealogy, you have later surnames like Mac Ó Briain ('Macobrien' = 'Son of Descendants of Brian') which reverted back to their ancestral form (Ó Briain => O'Brien) during the 17th-19th century, i.e., under pressure from the shift to English. It looks to me that Gonelligan may possibly be one such later Gaelic surname which came over here to America, became isolated, and was not revised under influence from later waves of Irish immigration. This typically happened in the American south as Irish immigration shifted north after the opening of the Erie Canal and the Civil War. So you have surnames in the south like 'Dawley' and 'Clarey' which retain the original Irish Gaelic pronunciation of Ó Dálaigh and Ó Cléirigh unlike Daley and Cleary. So it looks to me like this could have been Mac/Mag Ó Niallagái! n ('Son of Descendants of Niallagán') which shifted to Gonelligan in the same way that Mag Fhinn shifted to Ginn. If so, then Co. Kerry is the place as Mamme53196 has pointed out. It's a theory, anyway. Out of interest, did this name come through the American South at an early period? Best, - Jerry