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While many Irish names are familiar, their past incarnations are often shrouded in mystery, reflecting the ancient Gaelic heritage of their bearers. The original Gaelic form of the name Aleary is Ó Laoghaire, which was originally derived from Laoghaire, one of the most well-known personal names in ancient Ireland. 1
The surname Aleary was first found in County Cork (Irish: Corcaigh) the ancient Kingdom of Deis Muin (Desmond), located on the southwest coast of Ireland in the province of Munster, where they held a family seat from ancient times. The sept claim descent through the Heber line of Irish kings and in turn, through the O'Connell pedigree. 2
The family was ancient landholders as the Civil Survey of 1654 lists over thirty-four of the hundred and three were O'Leary. 3
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Aleary research. Another 86 words (6 lines of text) covering the years 1172, 1729, 1756, 1795, 1802, 1818, 1831, 1842, 1845, 1863 and 1889 are included under the topic Early Aleary History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Official documents, crafted by early scribes and church officials, primarily contained names that were spelled according to their pronunciation. This lead to the problem of one name being recorded under several different variations, creating an illusion that a single person was many people. Among the many spelling variations of the surname Aleary that are preserved in the archival documents of the time are Leary, O'Leary, O'Leery and others.
Another 182 words (13 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Aleary Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
In the 18th and 19th centuries hundreds of thousands of Irish people immigrated to North American shores. The early settlers were enticed by the promise of their own land, but they were moderately well off in Ireland when they decided to emigrate. Therefore, they were merely carrying out a long and carefully thought out decision. The 1840s saw the emergence of a very different trend: thousands of extremely desperate people crammed into passenger boats hoping to find any type of opportunity. The Irish of this decade had seen their homeland severely stricken by crop failures which resulted in widespread disease and starvation. At whatever time the Irish immigrants came to North America, they were instrumental in the rapid development of the emerging nations of the United States and what would become known as Canada. An exhaustive search of passenger and immigration lists has revealed many persons bearing the name Aleary, or one of its variants: Daniel, Denis, George, Jeremiah, John, Michael, Patrick, Thomas and William Leary, who all arrived in Philadelphia between 1840 and 1860; other Learys arrived in the ports of Boston, New York, San Francisco, Quebec..