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The Irish name Gwynnie was originally written in a Gaelic form as Ó Coinne, which means descendant of Coinneach. The personal name Coinneach was often Anglicized to Canice or Kenny.
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Gwynnie research. Another 114 words (8 lines of text) covering the years 1585, 1589, 1662, 1663 and 1682 are included under the topic Early Gwynnie History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Pronunciation, rather than spelling, guided scribes and church officials when recording names during the Middle Ages. This practice often resulted in one person's name being recorded under several different spellings. Numerous spelling variations of the surname Gwynnie are preserved in these old documents. The various spellings of the name that were found include Quinney, Guinney, Guiney, Gunny, Gunie, Gunney, O'Quinney, O'Guinney and many more.
Another 44 words (3 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Gwynnie Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
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 due 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 States and Canada were to a larger degree built by the Irish. Archival documents indicate that members of the Gwynnie family relocated to North American shores quite early: Claudine Guenee landed in Louisiana in 1719; Richard Gunny landed in Virginia in 1637; Griffith, and Thomas Gunie settled in Virginia in 1623; Sarah Gunney settled in Virginia in 1653.