There are many Irish surnames being used today in forms that are quite different than their original, ancient forms. langant originally appeared in Gaelic as O Longain, which is derived from the word long, which means tall.
The surname langant was first found in Down (Irish:An Dún) part of the Province of
from ancient times.
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our langant research.
Another 228 words (16 lines of text) covering the years 1689 and 1758 are included under the topic Early langant History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.Irish names were rarely spelled consistently in the Middle Ages.
Spelling variations of the name langant dating from that time include Langan, Longan, Langen, Longen, O'Lonagain, Langhan, Langin, O'Langane, O'Longane, O'Langan and many more.
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 do 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 Sates and Canada were to a larger degree built by the Irish. Archival documents indicate that members of the langant family relocated to North American shores quite early: Laurence Langan, an 'enforced emigrant' from
Ireland, who arrived in America in 1743; John Longan, who sailed to Philadelphia in 1775; William Langen, who sailed to Pennsylvania in 1777.