First found in counties Armagh and Monaghan, where they held a family seat from ancient times.

The 19th century saw a great wave of Irish Families leaving Ireland for the distant shores of North America and Australia. These families often left their homeland hungry, penniless, and destitute do to the policies of England. Those Irish immigrants that survived the long sea passage initially settled on the eastern seaboard of the continent. Some, however, moved north to a then infant Canada as United Empire Loyalists after ironically serving with the English in the American War of Independence. Others that remained in America later joined the westward migration in search of land. The greatest influx of Irish immigrants, though, came to North America during the Great Potato Famine of the late 1840s. Thousands left Ireland at this time for North America, and those who arrived were immediately put to work building railroads, coal mines, bridges, and canals. In fact, the foundations of today's powerful nations of the United Sates and Canada were to a larger degree built by the Irish. Archival documents indicate that members of the McNally family relocated to North American shores quite early: Bernard, Biddy, Charles, George, Henry John, Michal, Patrick, Thomas and William McNally all arrived in Philadelphia between 1840 and 1860; Daniel, Francis and Patrick McAnully all arrived in Philadelphia between 1840 and 1860.

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