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Origins Available: |
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The surname Effinny originally appeared in Gaelic as "O Cathain" or "Mac Cathain."
The surname Effinny was first found in County Londonderry (Irish: Doire), a Northern Irish county also known as Derry, in the province of Ulster. At one time, the areas was named O'Cahan Country.
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Effinny research. Another 130 words (9 lines of text) covering the years 1172, 1196, 1617, 1631, 1641, 1644, 1680, 1697, 1709, 1714, 1730, 1754, 1757, 1781 and 1819 are included under the topic Early Effinny History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Many spelling variations of the surname Effinny can be found in the archives. One reason for these variations is that ancient scribes and church officials recorded names as they were pronounced, often resulting in a single person being recorded under several different spellings. The different spellings that were found include Keane, Kane, Kayne, Keaney, Keny, Keyne, O'Kane, O'Keane, O'Cahan, Cahan, Kean, O'Cain, McCloskey, McCluskey, McClaskey and many more.
Prominent amongst the family at this time was Ruaidri Dall Ó Catháin (fl. late 16th/early 17th century), an Irish harper and composer; and Echlin O'Kane, one of the most famous of all Irish Harpists. Manus O'Cahan's Regiment of Foot was a body of soldiers, many of who had fought in Europe in the early years of the Thirty Years War. McColla, and a cousin by marriage, Manus O'Cahan, were thrown together in a joint Catholic-Protestant Scots-Irish peace keeping force in 1641. In one Ulster battle, McColla was badly wounded. O'Cahan personally dragged his giant 7-foot-tall (2.1 m) friend...
Another 98 words (7 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Effinny Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
In the 19th century, thousands of Irish left their English-occupied homeland for North America. Like most new world settlers, the Irish initially settled on the eastern shores of the continent but began to move westward with the promise of owning land. The height of this Irish migration came during the Great Potato Famine of the late 1840s. With apparently nothing to lose, Irish people left on ships bound for North America and Australia. Unfortunately a great many of these passengers lost their lives - the only thing many had left - to disease, starvation, and accidents during the long and dangerous journey. Those who did safely arrive in "the land of opportunities" were often used for the hard labor of building railroads, coal mines, bridges, and canals. The Irish were critical to the quick development of the infrastructure of the United States and Canada. Passenger and immigration lists indicate that members of the Effinny family came to North America quite early: Charles Kane settled in New London Conn. in 1811 with his family; Charles, David, Francis, Henry, James, John, Michael, Patrick, Thomas and William Kane all arrived in Philadelphia between 1840 and 1870.