Looking for Aeneas McDonald

There were several Eneas McDonnell's in my family, but they were from Mayo (Killasser parish), about 40 miles north of where you're looking.  However, I can tell you something about the names and the family.

Eneas/Aeneas/etc. are all anglicized forms of the Irish name Aonghus, which was also anglicized as Angus (both in Ireland and Scotland).

In Ireland, the surname McDonald is a variant form of the name McDonnell.  According to MacLysaght’s “Surnames of Ireland”, the McDonnell surname is of three separate origins, two of them related to one another.  There was a gallowglass (in Irish, gallóglach, or “foreign fighter” = mercenary) family living in the Glens of Antrim (many people in Ireland have ancestry in such gallowglass families), and a western Connacht sept (or tribe), living principally in what is now Mayo, which is related to the first group.  The third family lived further south in Ireland, and was unrelated to the first two.  A Galway McDonnell would  likely be from the Mayo branch, so I suppose we are at least distant cousins.

In his “Lore of Ireland”, Ó hÓgáin explains that the McDonnell's in Antrim were related to the Scottish MacDonald clan (Clan Donald).  The McDonnell’s came from Scotland to settle in the Glens of Antrim in the 13th century, from where, by the 15th century, they controlled all of North Antrim.  If you've been to Ireland, the ruined Dunluce Castle which is a popular tourist site near the Giants Causeway on the North Coast was the main McDonnell family castle.  A large number of those McDonnell's were brought from Antrim to what is now Mayo in the late 14th century, to assist the ruling family of that area, the Anglo-Norman Burke family.  Some also live across the border in neighboring counties, such as Galway (the county boundaries were a later creation).

The surname in Irish is Mac Domhnaill, which means “son/descendant of Donal”, but it is spelled MacDhòmhnaill in Scottish Gaelic (with the same meaning).  The “d” at the end of MacDonald is a later addition to the anglicized version of the name.  MacDonald is more common in Scotland (and among Scots settlers in Ireland, especially in Ulster), but McDonnell and McDonald were both used in Ireland as anglicized forms of the surname, sometimes within the same family in various records.

Hi Maureen,

To add to the interesting Post by Kevin45, I attach a copy of the Order of Transplantation made in Dublin in 1655, known as Cromwell's.

Historians do not agree on the actual number that were transplanted, but the surnames that are found today in various counties in the West give somwe credence to the Order.

Regards,