McCaherty History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
Ireland

There are multitude of rich histories underlying the many Irish surnames in use today. The name McCaherty originally appeared in Gaelic as Mac Gafraidh. Gafraidh or Gothraidh equates with the English personal name Godfrey. Variations that start with the prefix Mac or Mc mean son of Godfrey.

Early Origins of the McCaherty family

The surname McCaherty was first found in County Fermanagh (Irish: Fear Manach) in the southwestern part of Northern Ireland, Province of Ulster, where they held a family seat at Ballymacaffrey near Five mile Town in Fermanagh near the Tyrone border. 1

Early History of the McCaherty family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our McCaherty research. Another 51 words (4 lines of text) covering the year 1987 is included under the topic Early McCaherty History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

McCaherty Spelling Variations

Pronunciation, rather than spelling, was what guided scribes and church officials in recording names, a practice that often led to the misleading result of one person's name being recorded under several different spellings. Numerous spelling variations of the surname McCaherty are preserved in documents that were examined for evidence of the family's history. The various spellings of McCaherty included MacCaffery, MacCaffrey, MacCafferty, MacAffery, MacAffry, MacAfferty, MacGoffrey, MacGodfrey and many more.

Early Notables of the McCaherty family

More information is included under the topic Early McCaherty Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

McCaherty migration to the United States +

North America received thousands of Irish immigrants from the English-ruled Ireland during the 19th century. Once in the United States or what would become Canada, these immigrants quickly contributed to the ongoing settling and industrialization processes. The largest influx of Irish settlers occurred with Great Potato Famine of the late 1840s. An exhaustive examination of immigrant and passenger lists has shown many early immigrants bearing the surname of McCaherty:

McCaherty Settlers in United States in the 19th Century

Bernd McCaherty, who arrived in America in 1805 2

Citations +

MacLysaght, Edward, Irish Families Their Names, Arms and Origins 4th Edition. Dublin: Irish Academic, 1982. Print. (ISBN 0-7165-2364-7)
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)