Liz: I can give you some information that will clarify some of your
Carnahan business.
1) The Carnahan Clan originated in Donegal and is one of the oldest Irish
names still in existence.
2) The clan left Ireland and went to the lowlands of SW Scotland. A few
strays got as far North as Aberdeen, but almost all inhabited the SW corner
around Stranrear, Wigtown, (Where you can see Ireland on a clear day.)
3) They do not ascribe to being Scot, but are IRISH to the bone!
4) There is NO blazon or arms, crest, etc. I have proven that with the
Chief Herald of Ireland as well as British authorities. The information you
find on the net and other sites is pure fiction! (I personally have two
different "family crests" for Carnahan, and know of at least 10!
Carnahans had dropped from being a powerful clan long before the English
started awarding titles and coats of arms.
5) The William Carnahan you mention is given credit for being the progenitor
of the entire clan if you believe what you see on the net! He is NOT.
There are many records of Carnahans in Scotland and they start appearing
around the 1400s when the English started keeping lists. Prior to that
time, in true Celtic fashion, family history was kept via oral traditions
and poems.
6) The Carnahans who returned to Ireland around the 1700s mostly did so as
tenants of the Scot overlords who owned the Plantations.
7) They originated in Donegal. Those found in Antrim and other Ulster places
were repats. Cork is in Southern Ireland and basically had nothing to do
with the Clan.
8) Carnahans who left Ireland for the frontier of America went two
ways...PA, OH, IN, etc.; VA, Carolinas, KY, etc.
9) The story of the 3 tribes uniting is yet an unproven story.
10) Seafaring! Yes, Cousin Carnaghan was a ship owner, etc., but not a
pirate.
11) Pirates? Not quite! Plunderers, yes. They preyed on the Danes and
other invaders.
12) The Carnahans of ancient times are mentioned in several texts. They
appear in the Annals of the Four Masters.
13) The "four masters" were a group of monks who traveled the island, taking
down the oral histories and putting them into print.
14) The name does equate with "victorious", and they were known for valor
and victory in battle.
For your search, be careful of the internet. Many of the facts published in
the genealogy there are unproven and have been around for so long that they
have taken on a life of their own.
I have spent many years and thousands of dollars buying copies of ancient
documents, and a well used copy of Keating's History of Ireland, last
published in 1867 for over $500. My Irish husband almost had a stroke when
he saw the book!
The information on the Carnahan clan is so sparse and difficult to find (the
true facts) that I did publish a book with the history of the clan, to share
with others. It is a not-for-profit project.
Hope the above information is of help.
Bess Carnahan, researching Clan Cearnacháin, Carnahan, Kernohan, and other
spellings
----- Original Message -----
From: <carnahan-request(a)rootsweb.com>
To: <carnahan(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Friday, July 20, 2007 1:02 AM
Subject: CARNAHAN Digest, Vol 2, Issue 28
Today's Topics:
1. (no subject) (Liz Darnell)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2007 09:33:19 -0400
From: "Liz Darnell" <liz(a)americanvision.org>
Subject: [CARNAHAN] (no subject)
To: <CARNAHAN(a)rootsweb.com>
Message-ID: <200707191331.l6JDVUCI011523(a)mail.rootsweb.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
My name is Elisabeth (Martin) Darnell. A cousin of my grandmother's
(Phoebe
<Wilkins> Clapper) did some research on our ancestors but I don't have
much
info; I have also researched on the web and what I find matches what
little
I know from her. We definitely know that our ancestor of origin is Ann
Carnahan, a charter member of the first Protestant Church in Scotland (the
timeframe is 1455). Research on my part finds a William Carnahan from
Aberdeen Scotland born 1455. There is definite knowledge of moving to
Ireland in the 1700's and then to America in the 1800's - PA and VA then
OH
are brought into the mix. My grandmother's father's name was John Wilkins
and his mother was an Ann Carnahan also. From what I can tell, the
Carnahans were actually not a Scottish clan but inhabited the lowlands
around the Aberdeen area, but were actually more Ulster Irish in nature to
begin with. Later on in the 1700's I found Carnahans mentioned in
Northern
Ireland (both County Cork and Donegal) as being somewhat of a pirate
nature,
seafarers and rather wild.
Other facts I have dug out but are not sure they are verifiable: The motto
being Valor and Faith and our blazon of arms had an ermine fur (signifying
royalty) with lions and our crest had a Griffin (signifying death defying
bravery). The first recorded mention of Carnahan is in Scotland in the
13th
century, 1289 to be exact; records in 1540 three Irish tribes banded
together to form Carnahan for protection - the Carnochans, Carnighans and
Carnathans.
If anyone knows or has any further information on the Carnahans (where,
who,
dates, events, etc) I would be thrilled!
Liz Darnell
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