Gegan History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
Ireland

The original Gaelic form of the Gegan surname is Mag Eochagain, a patronymic derived from the personal name Eochaidh.

Early Origins of the Gegan family

The surname Gegan was first found in the county of Westmeath (Irish: An Iarmhí) in the Irish Midlands, province of Leinster, in the barony of Moycashel at Kilbeggan where they held a family seat from ancient times. Traditionally, the Gegans are said to descend from Fiacha, son of Niall of the Nine Hostages.

Early History of the Gegan family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Gegan research. Another 148 words (11 lines of text) covering the years 1172, 1186, 1291, 1291, 1603, 1600, 1689, 1580, 1650, 1702, 1763, 1800 and 1749 are included under the topic Early Gegan History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Gegan Spelling Variations

Scribes and church officials, lacking today's standardized spelling rules, recorded names by how they were pronounced. This imprecise guide often led to the misleading result of one person's name being recorded under several different spellings. Numerous spelling variations of the surname Gegan are preserved in documents of the family history. The various spellings of the name that were found include Geoghegan, Gagahan, Gahagan, Gahaghan, Gaghan, Gegan, MacGeoghegan, Geohan and many more.

Early Notables of the Gegan family (pre 1700)

Prominent amongst the family at this time was Conal MacGeoghegan (circa 1580-1650) Chief of the sept MacGeoghegan, historian who translated the Annals of Clonmacnoise; James MacGeoghegan (1702-1763) of Westmeath, an ordained priest in Paris, who wrote a "History of Ireland;" and Edward Geoghegan of Dublin was one of the most eminent surgeons of his time (early 1800s). Usher Gagahan (d. 1749), was an Irish classical scholar, belonged to a good family of Westmeath, Ireland; was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, but took...
Another 80 words (6 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Gegan Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Gegan migration to the United States +

In the 18th and 19th centuries, thousands of Irish families fled an Ireland that was forcibly held through by England through its imperialistic policies. A large portion of these families crossed the Atlantic to the shores of North America. The fate of these families depended on when they immigrated and the political allegiances they showed after they arrived. Settlers that arrived before the American War of Independence may have moved north to Canada at the war's conclusion as United Empire Loyalists. Such Loyalists were granted land along the St. Lawrence River and the Niagara Peninsula. Those that fought for the revolution occasionally gained the land that the fleeing Loyalist vacated. After this period, free land and an agrarian lifestyle were not so easy to come by in the East. So when seemingly innumerable Irish immigrants arrived during the Great Potato Famine of the late 1840s, free land for all was out of the question. These settlers were instead put to work building railroads, coal mines, bridges, and canals. Whenever they came, Irish settlers made an inestimable contribution to the building of the New World. Early North American immigration records have revealed a number of people bearing the Irish name Gegan or a variant listed above, including:

Gegan Settlers in United States in the 19th Century

Joseph Gegan, who arrived in Maryland in 1828 [1]
Richard Gegan, who landed in Mississippi in 1840 [1]
William W Gegan, who arrived in Mississippi in 1840 [1]
Andrew, James, John, Michael, Patrick, Gegan, who all, who arrived in Philadelphia between 1840 and 1860

Gegan migration to Australia +

Emigration to Australia followed the First Fleets of convicts, tradespeople and early settlers. Early immigrants include:

Gegan Settlers in Australia in the 19th Century

Michael Gegan, who arrived in Adelaide, Australia aboard the ship "Hooghly" in 1846 [2]

Citations +

Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)
State Records of South Australia. (Retrieved 2010, November 5) HOOGHLY 1846. Retrieved from http://www.slsa.sa.gov.au/BSA/1846Hooghly.htm