History of the Kane Ancestral Map of Ireland
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:
- Ancestral data, specifying the ancestry or racial origin of each family
- A genealogical chart, showing the traditional Royal Ancestral Lines of the Gaelic
- 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.
The Ancient Gaelic Names of Ireland
…those which trace their origin to Milesius, bore at one time (with rare exceptions) the prefix O (grandson of) or Mac (son of) and are so shown on the Ancestral Map. Today, the ancient form of the prefix “Mac” has been almost universally contracted to “Mc.” Many variant spellings of the ancient names are in modern usage, such as Clery and Cleary, Daly and Daley, but the ancestral line in most cases, is identical. On the other hand, many names, identically spelled now, have entirely different ancestral lines. These distinctions are delineated by the Map’s Ancestral Key. In cases where a choice had to be made in the spelling of a family name shown on the map, the one selected is the one generally used by authoritative genealogical sources and, therefore, will be most assistance to those interested in a future study of these names.
Scholars of the present day who have made a study of Ireland’s traditional genealogies vary in their conclusions as to the earliest period of their authenticity. Probably the most conservative authority among these scholars, the late professor Eoin MacNeill, of the National University of Ireland, concludes in his work, “Celtic Ireland” that the Irish genealogical traditions are credible in detail at approximately 300 A.D.
Regarding the prehistoric ancestors, in whom the Gaelic genealogies center, it seems evident that they symbolize gods of the Iris whom the early pre-Christian Gaels believed to be their ancestors. The godly source element is indicated in the lineage records by the fact that the early Irish genealogies list Bile as the father of Milesius. Bile was known in ancient times as the god of the other world. Belief among the Gaels in godly origin was similar to the ancestral traditions of the early Greeks and Romans.