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Author: HughCallahan28
Surnames: Callaghan O'Callaghan
Classification: queries
Message Board URL:
http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.callaghan/158.4.1.1.1/mb.ashx
Message Board Post:
Kelvin, several years back I did a distribution study on the Callaghan / O'Callaghan
surname, using Griffith's Valuation as the data source. The surname was basically
concentrated around three zones. There was a Cork/Kerry grouping (by far the largest); an
Armagh grouping; and a Donegal grouping. The suggestion here is that these are at least
three separate, unrelated family groups, possibly more. The families in Cork, Kerry,
Limerick, Tipperary, & Clare alone accounted for about 60% of all Callaghan /
O'Callaghan families in Ireland. The grouping in Donegal was very isolated
geographically, and tightly clustered in only a handful of parishes, so my conclusion was
that the Donegal group is from a common source, and that source was probably fairly
recent, historically; that is to say, the Donegal O'Callaghans are probably a distinct
branch of larger indigenous Donegal sept, like Ó Domhnaill, that broke off in the last
400-500 years. One of my known paternal ancestors, for in!
stance, came from the same area where a m'Killaghan was recorded in 1659, in close
proximity to O'Donnells. O'Callaghan is a patronym, so it appears that there may
have been someone named Ceallachán Ó Domhnaill in Donegal, whose descendants
differentiated themselves at first by using mac Ceallacháin, and then Ó Ceallacháin la
So I think you need to know exactly where your Callaghan ancestor came from. The story
that we're all descended from some 10th-century king is really just for the tourists.
Hope this helps.
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