Irish Maps for Family History

The Kane Ancestral Map lists the Royal lines and the Ancestors of most of the noble Gaelic families of ancient Ireland.

The Ruling Gaelic Families - Kings, Princes, Lords, and Noble Chieftains are shown in the majority of classes in their pre-17th century territories. The non-ruling Gaelic families are shown in the approximate areas in which they resided, mainly, in the periods prior to the 17th century. The omission of any Gaelic family name indicates that a record of the specific ancestry of the family has not been located by the compilers.

The powerful Anglo-Norman Irish families appear in the territories they either won from the Gaels in battle or gained by Gaelic marriage alliances. Data on other non-Gaelic families of Ireland are recorded in cases where extant evidence identifies the families' origins with a reasonable degree of certainty.

The ancient kingdoms of Ireland, now called the provinces of Connaught, Ulster, Munster, and Leinster are shown in the map's outline type. Each modern county is identified in large type and the baronies comprising the counties and key place names are shown in special type. Each province's coat of arms is illustrated in the four corners of the map's border. Prior to the compilation of this present Ancestral Map of Ireland by O'Daly and O'Neill, four basic maps listing Irish family names have been produced. None of these, however, attempted to provide the ancestral and racial origin data for the families listed.

The oldest of these previous Irish family name maps was produced by Ortelius, a Dutch map maker, in the year 1572, for the English government as a military aid in its attempted conquest of Ireland. The last of these earlier maps was compiled in 1846 by Phillip MacDermott of Dublin for use in Connellan's edition of the Annals of Ireland. The compilers of the present work have utilized the research done in the earlier basic maps, where such data were found to be of practical value.

In addition, the Kane Irish Ancestral Map adds the following features:

1. Ancestral data, specifying the ancestry or racial origin of each family
2. A genealogical chart, showing the traditional Royal Ancestral Lines of the Gaelic
3. A more extensive designation of the traditional social positions of the ancient Gaelic families, such as Bardic, Brehon, Erenach, Medical, etc. Identification of the Norman, Scandinavian, Welsh, etc., families of Ireland where authentic data permit.