Another Irish Gainey origin
The following letter (edited) was received by my cousin Rebecca Gainey
From: rapheog1@xxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Saturday, July 19, 2008 1:22 PM
To: rbradshaw@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Go raibh maigh agat
Dear Rebecca,
that's Irish for thank you (go rove mah agut) & the words are always slurred together, Since the family's origin is as Irish as the proverbial Paddy's pig, I thought appropriate to start of in our "native" tongue.
I promised you some family history. In it's Irish form the name is S Giibheannaigh (in Irish it means "Of the Fettered." Since my middle name means in Irish "son of the sea," I reckon it might be some kind of warning about getting tied up & dumped in the ocean-- just kidding, I hope.)The little marks over the letters are called "fadas" & they tell you that it's a long vowel sound. In Irish, it sounds very much like O'Ganey. (or as the anglicanised Irish version is spelled, O'Geaney-- the name I use most often) The names of Ganey, Gainey, Gaines, Ganes, Guiney, Gaughney, Geeney, O'Giany, & Keaveney-- all come from the same surname. The family was attached to the O'Callaghans as a sept and would have been treated as part of that clan as well & their coats of arms are identical. The motto is Faithful & Bold-- in Irish, Dmlis agus Dana; in Latin, Fidus et Audax. If you don't have a copy of the coat of arms, I'll send you one.
S Giibheannaighs (Ganeys) come from Co. Cork. As best I can tell, our part of the clan comes from the border country of Co. Cork & Co. Kerry. On one of my trips across the pond, I had some time to kill & I went looking for anything I could find out about the "home" territory. I found a lady whose maiden name was O'Geaney and who worked for Co. Cork branch of the Irish office of Archives & History. She made a copy of a map page & marked on it all the places she knew were associated with the family. They run right long the Cork-Kerry border from the mountains to the sea and she marked places in both counties.
On another trip over, I went to look at some of the places & I had a couple of pints and a sandwich at an tiny little inn & public house known as O'Geaney's. I asked the lady who ran the place what she knew about the name. She said I needed to come back the next day to talk with the owner. That was a bummer since I couldn't stay over (I had to meet a lawyer in Galway city the next day & that was about a 2 hours drive). As I was leaving, a fellow drove up on a tractor and it turned out to be the owner. He said his grandmother had been an O'Geaney & that the place had been in his family since the 1500's.
Ganeys have been in the Carolinas since the Revolution. The first one I've run across was an Irishman named Micajah (or in some places it's Malachi) Ganey who was educated at Oxford and for reasons unknown to me he joined the British army. When he got to this country he was commissioned an officer by Lord Cornwallis and sent off to fight against Francis Marion. He's written about in McCrady's History of the Revoltion. It's said that he was feared & despised & that he was quite successful in battling the partisans for a couple of years. He was finally captured by Marion's men-- saved from being hanged by the clemency of Marion and agreed to come fight along side Marion as one of his officers, which he did until the end of the War. He must have been a helluva man-- there's an historic marker on the Black River road near Georgetown that tells of his being stuck thropugh with a bayonet -- still attached to the musket-- and then riding away to Georgetown, bayonet still in him, to get back to his troops. He settled on land that's on the bluff of the North Santee river, near Hopsewee Plantation, where Charleston & Georgetown counties meet. The place is now called Britton's Neck, the same as the village in Horry county.
Rebecca, again I thank you. You're a real sweetheart to include me. Beannachtai--- that means, blessings on you-- on all of you.
Take care. Raphe
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