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Surnames: Canavan
Classification: Query
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/DYH.2ACIB/17.22.24.1
Message Board Post:
Canavan was originally a west of Ireland name in the seventeenth century - they were the
hereditory physicians to the O'Flaherty family - but there was a large migration of
Connaught families to east Ulster with the industrialisation of Belfast in the the
nineteenth century. Many who missed the metaphorical boat of employment in the ship yards,
the linen and rope works of Belfast, took a real boat across that narrow strip of water to
Scotland. And by the end of the centory something like 7% of Scotland was Irish born.
There were definitely Canavans among them, for one of the Scottish members of parliament
today is a Dennis Canavan.