Hello all cousins near & far, One of the greatest and notorius criminals, Cromwell lived from 1599-1658 (in was in Ireland 1645-1650) and supposedly demanded that all persons with a surname beginning with "O", drop that "O" to strip them of their "Irish" identity. Does anyone know if any of the O'Donnells did this to appease Cromwell? My late father viewed this to be an insult of the highest degree to suggest or request that any member of the O'Donnell family drop the "O". Any comments or information on this? I recently received email from someone surname "Donnell" and I just did not really know what to say to this person as to why they dropped the "O" & I don't think this individual would have liked what Dad had to say about those that did. *yeek* ;-) Happy holidays all, Susanna O'Donnell ================================ "O'Donnells in San Francisco" http://www.geocities.com/sfodonnell_2000/sfod.html Note: Hope to update this site soon ... _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com
My O'Donnell's were forced to take the name Daniel. When said with a brogue I assure you it sounds like Donnell. In 1903 our William O'Donnell of Killonery Kilkenny went into town filled out a form and regained the family name of O'Donnell. This made the baptism records a very interesting mix. All the US immigrants (I have located) were known as O'Donnell when they came here. Doreen Pocono Mtns, PA -----Original Message----- From: Sue O'Donnell [mailto:sfodonnell@hotmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2001 3:10 PM To: ODONNELL-L@rootsweb.com Subject: O'Donnell Family History question ... ? Hello all cousins near & far, One of the greatest and notorius criminals, Cromwell lived from 1599-1658 (in was in Ireland 1645-1650) and supposedly demanded that all persons with a surname beginning with "O", drop that "O" to strip them of their "Irish" identity. Does anyone know if any of the O'Donnells did this to appease Cromwell? My late father viewed this to be an insult of the highest degree to suggest or request that any member of the O'Donnell family drop the "O". Any comments or information on this? I recently received email from someone surname "Donnell" and I just did not really know what to say to this person as to why they dropped the "O" & I don't think this individual would have liked what Dad had to say about those that did. *yeek* ;-) Happy holidays all, Susanna O'Donnell ================================ "O'Donnells in San Francisco" http://www.geocities.com/sfodonnell_2000/sfod.html Note: Hope to update this site soon ... _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237