| ![Show Contents]() McNamer History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms
- Origins Available:
 Ireland Surnames of Irish origin have experienced many changes in their spellings and forms. Before being translated into English, McNamer appeared as Mac Conmara, which means "hound of the sea" or "warrior of the sea." Early Origins of the McNamer familyThe surname McNamer was first found in County Clare (Irish: An Clár) located on the west coast of Ireland in the province of Munster, where MacConmara or MacNamara was chief of the territory of Clan Caisin, now the barony of Tullagh. The family was also sometimes styled chiefs of Clan Cuilean; derived from Cuilean, one of their chiefs in the eighth century. This ancient family have traditionally held the high office of hereditary marshals of Thomond. Early History of the McNamer familyThis web page shows only a small excerpt of our McNamer research. Another 136 words (10 lines of text) covering the years 1402, 1426, 1768, 1797 and 1826 are included under the topic Early McNamer History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible. McNamer Spelling VariationsLacking standardized spellings, scribes and church officials recorded people's name according to how they sounded. This practice often led to the misleading result of one person's name being recorded under several different spellings. Numerous spelling variations of the surname McNamer are preserved in the archival documents of the period. The various spellings of the name that were found include McNamara, McNamar, McNamarra, McNamard, Sheedy and many more. Early Notables of the McNamer familyAnother 44 words (3 lines of text) are included under the topic Early McNamer Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
 McNamer migration to the United States | + |
Under the rule of England, land ownership in Ireland changed dramatically, and many native Irish families found themselves renting out land to farm from absentee owners. This was one of the prime reasons that immigration to North America began in the late 18th century: Irish farmers dreamed of owning their own parcel of land to work for themselves. At this point, the immigrants were at least of modest means for the passage across the Atlantic was often quite dear. In the 1840s the Great Potato Famine created an exodus of people of quite different means. These people were most often destitute: they either sold anything they had to gain a passage or they were sponsored by philanthropic societies. Many of these immigrants were sick from disease and starvation: as a result many did not survive the long transatlantic journey. Although those settlers that did survive were often despised and discriminated against by people already established in these nations, they were critical to rapid development of the powerful industrial nations of the United States and the country that would later become known as Canada. An examination of immigration and passenger lists shows many persons bearing the name of McNamer or one of its variants:
McNamer Settlers in United States in the 19th Century- John McNamer, who landed in Arkansas in 1872 1
| Contemporary Notables of the name McNamer (post 1700) | + |
- Bill McNamer, American Republican politician, Alternate Delegate to Republican National Convention from Montana, 1960
- Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)
|
McNamer migration to the United States 
