O'Donellend Surname History

• Origins Available:
• Ireland

Early Origins of the O'Donellend family

Early History of the O'Donellend family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our O'Donellend research. Another 70 words (5 lines of text) covering the years 1588, 1609, 1616, 1640, 1649, 1660, 1665 and 1705 are included under the topic Early O'Donellend History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

O'Donellend Spelling Variations

Names from the Middle Ages demonstrate many spelling variations. This is because the recording scribe or church official often decided as to how a person's name was spelt and in what language. Research into the name O'Donellend revealed many variations, including Donellan, Donnellan, Donnelan, Donelan, Donnellin, Donellin and many more.

Early Notables of the O'Donellend family

Prominent amongst the family at this time was Reverend Nehemiah Donellan (d. 1609), Archbishop of Tuam, who translated the New Testament into Irish. His name is written in Irish Fearganinm O'Domhnallain, and he was born in the county of Galway, and is said to have been a son of Melaghlin O'Donellan...
Another 51 words (4 lines of text) are included under the topic Early O'Donellend Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Migration of the O'Donellend family

To escape the religious and political discrimination they experienced primarily at the hands of the English, thousands of Irish left their homeland in the 19th century. These migrants typically settled in communities throughout the East Coast of North America, but also joined the wagon trains moving out to the Midwest. Ironically, when the American War of Independence began, many Irish settlers took the side of England, and at the war's conclusion moved north to Canada. These United Empire Loyalists, were granted land along the St. Lawrence River and the Niagara Peninsula. Other Irish immigrants settled in Newfoundland, the Ottawa Valley, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The greatest influx of Irish immigrants, however, came to North America during the Great Potato Famine of the late 1840s. Thousands left Ireland at this time for North America and Australia. Many of those numbers, however, did not live through the long sea passage. These Irish settlers to North America were immediately put to work building railroads, coal mines, bridges, and canals. 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 O'Donellend or a variant listed above, including: Patrick Donellen arrived in Philadelphia in 1860; Mary Donellin settled in Virginia in 1655; Catherine Donnellan settled in Quebec in 1848.