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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 Olleary is Ó Laoghaire, which was originally derived from Laoghaire, one of the most well-known personal names in ancient Ireland. 1
The surname Olleary 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 Olleary 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 Olleary History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Lacking standardized spellings, scribes and church officials recorded people's name according to how they sounded. This practice often led to the misleading result of one person's name being recorded under several different spellings. Numerous spelling variations of the surname Olleary are preserved in the archival documents of the period. The various spellings of the name that were found include Leary, O'Leary, O'Leery and others.
Another 182 words (13 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Olleary 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 Olleary: 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..