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| Origins Available: |
| | Ireland |
Before Irish names were translated into English, Dricsoll had a Gaelic form of Ó hEidersceoil, from the word eidirsceol, which means an intermediary. 1
The surname Dricsoll was first found in the southern part of the county of Kerry. They were later forced out of this territory by the O'Sullivans, and migrated eastward, settling around Baltimore in the southwest of County Cork. They remain almost exclusively in this region today, despite the depredations of the neighboring O'Donovan and O'Mahony septs. 2
"The original habitat of the O'Driscolls was the Barony of West Carbery, in County Cork, where O'Driscoll was Lord of Baltimore, and possessed the Island of Cape Clear and adjacent territory. The great majority of the present Driscolls are to be found there." 3
The sept takes its name from Eidersceoil, who was born around 910 AD, and was in turn descended from Lughaide Laidhe, who was the ancestor of the Corca Laoidheclann which occupied the area of Cork belonging to the diocese of Ross. The variant Dirsicall was ten times more common than O'Driscoll eighty years ago, the situation has now been reversed.
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Dricsoll research. Another 216 words (15 lines of text) covering the years 1460, 1698 and 1707 are included under the topic Early Dricsoll History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
During the Middle Ages, surname were rarely recorded except by clerks, priests and registrars. As a name was spelt by scribes solely based on how it sounded, one's name could have been recorded many different ways during the life of its bearer. Numerous spelling variations were revealed in the search for the origin of the name Dricsoll family name. Variations found include Driscoll, O'Driscoll and others.
More information is included under the topic Early Dricsoll Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Suffering from poverty and racial discrimination, thousands of Irish families left the island in the 19th century for North America aboard cramped passenger ships. The early migrants became settlers of small tracts of land, and those that came later were often employed in the new cities or transitional work camps. The largest influx of Irish settlers occurred with Great Potato Famine during the late 1840s. Although the immigrants from this period were often maligned when they arrived in the United States, they provided the cheap labor that was necessary for the development of that country as an industrial power. Early immigration and passenger lists have revealed many immigrants bearing the name Dricsoll: Florence O'Driscoll who landed in Virginia in 1663. The Chief of the family settled in Mobile, and the Reverends Michael and Patrick O'Driscoll were descended from him..