One of my ancestral family surnames begins with a vowel, but not only a vowel ... a vowel with an apostrophe. Since I began the quest to build my family tree over twelve years ago, I've often wondered about the origins of the distinctive prefix O' in many Irish surnames, including the maiden surname of my mother - O'Donnell - and I've wondered ... why the apostrophe?
After further delving into this topic, I've found out that this little grammar symbol - the apostrophe - holds a lot of meaning in terms of Irish heritage.
Ireland was apparently one of the first countries in Europe to use surnames, in particular, patronymic surnames. The oldest surviving evidence of this type of surname use in Ireland dates from 916 A.D (10th century). It was recorded in a report of the death of the lord of Aidhne. The surname was Ua Cleririgh/Clerigh or Ó Cleririgh / Clerigh as it would be recorded in modern spelling (in this context, 'modern' means from around 400 years ago!).
The older form of the prefix, Ua, and the more modern Ó, were used to mean 'grandson of' or 'descended from'. These prefixes were added to the forename (first name) of the original bearer's grandfather or an earlier ancestor. So, in the case of Ó Cleririgh / Clerigh, the surname means descendant of Cleririgh / Clerigh.
The creation of surnames in Ireland may have got off to an early start, but it took quite some time for it to become firmly established. In fact, it took more than six hundred years. It wasn't until around the end of the 11th century that the main families in Ireland had taken on many of the surnames that are familiar to us today, but back then they were constructed using either an Ó (short for Ua) or a Mac.
The Norman invasion of Ireland in the 12th century marked the beginning of English involvement and as English intervention increased through the centuries, having an Irish sounding name became more and more problematic. By the 17th century, anyone with an Irish name was finding it difficult to find work of any sort and as a result, many people dropped the Ó or Mac from their surname in the hope of avoiding any sort of prejudice. Thus began the 'anglicisation' of Irish last names and the degradation of the Gaelic.
In the case of families with an Ó in their surname, sometimes the prefix was dropped altogether or the Ó was kept, but the fada (the line above the letter) was removed and the apostrophe was added - O'. That was obviously the case in my ancestral line.
In the particular case of my ancestral family name, the surname O'Donnell was the anglicized form of the Gaelic Ó Dónaill / Ó Domhnaill / Ó Doṁnaill or Ua Domaill, derived from the old Gaelic forename 'Domhnaill'. So the O'Donnells would have originally been the descendants of Domhnaill.
Getting back to my particular ancestral line, the earliest record I have for a member of the family is a baptism record dated 1805. At that time the family were using the surname 'Daniel ' - so not only had the O been dropped but what remained - Donnell - had been anglicized to Daniel.
That baptism record is shown above, and it's for the first-born child of my maternal 3x great grandfather Patrick O'Donnell / Daniel, who lived between 1780 and 1865. It's likely that the surname had undergone the transformation in the 1700s or even the 1600s.
15 years after this baptism record, in 1820, the family name was still recorded as 'Daniel ' on the baptism record of the last-born child of my 3x great grandfather Patrick. All of his childrens' births were registered using the name 'Daniel '.
The 1828 Tithe Applotment Book record for Ballyhenebry (the earliest known place of residence for my branch of the O'Donnell family) in County Kilkenny, still showed Patrick's surname as 'Daniel '.
By 1850, the family had moved to the Killonerry area in County Kilkenny, and a Griffith's Valuation record listed Patrick (my 3x great grandfather), his elderly father John Snr.(my 4x great grandfather) and his son John Jnr. (my 2x great grandfather) with the surname of 'Donnell '. Patrick passed away in 1865 and the probate record had his surname recorded once again as 'Daniel '.
The birth, marriage and death record of Patrick's fifth-born son John (my 2x great grandfather who lived between 1812 and 1896) all had his surname recorded as 'Daniel '. The baptism records for all John's children, born between 1854 to 1872, also had the surname 'Daniel ' listed,
So it seems the family's surname was anglicized in Ireland from at least the early 1800s (likely even much earlier) to around at least 1900.
A few of John's children had emigrated to either the U.S.A. or Australia between 1882 and the late 1890s, and they all used the surname 'O'Donnell ' once they had left Ireland, including my great grandfather Edmond, who emigrated to Australia in 1883. Those branches of the family were all known by the surname O'Donnell.
Back in Ireland, the 1901 census for Killonerry shows that the family was known by the surname 'O'Donnell' once again at the start of the 20th century. The prefix O' has lived on ever since!
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