An excerpt from www.HouseOfNames.com archives copyright © 2000 - 2013
Origins Available: Irish, Scottish
Where did the Irish Kilbride family come from? What is the Irish Kilbride family crest and coat of arms? When did the Kilbride family first arrive in the United States? Where did the various branches of the family go? What is the Kilbride family history?There are many Irish surnames being used today in forms that are quite different than their original, ancient forms. Kilbride originally appeared in Gaelic as Mac Giolla Bhrighde, which denotes a devotee of St. Brigid.
Within the archives researched, many different spelling variations of the surname Kilbride were found. These included One reason for the many variations is that scribes and church officials often spelled an individual's name as it sounded. This imprecise method often led to many versions. MacBride, Kilbride, Gilbride and others.
First found in Donegal, where the they are descended from the son of the servant (follower, devotee) of St. Brigit, the virgin Abbess of Kildare who died 525 A.D. The surname was first listed as eranaghs of Raymunterdoney in Donegal, a parish which includes Tory Island. The parish comprises 12,017 statute acres, but more than two-thirds is mountainous. Records show the name was principally found at Gweedore in the seventeenth century.
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Kilbride research. Another 390 words(28 lines of text) covering the years 1440, 1650, 1659, 1718, 1726, 1730, 1778, and 1800 are included under the topic Early Kilbride History in all our PDF Extended History products.
Another 42 words(3 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Kilbride Notables in all our PDF Extended History products.
To escape the religious and political discrimination they experienced primarily at the hands of the English, thousands of Irish left their homeland in the 19th century. These migrants typically settled in communities throughout the East Coast of North America, but also joined the wagon trains moving out to the Midwest. Ironically, when the American War of Independence began, many Irish settlers took the side of England, and at the war's conclusion moved north to Canada. These United Empire Loyalists, were granted land along the St. Lawrence River and the Niagara Peninsula. Other Irish immigrants settled in Newfoundland, the Ottawa Valley, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The greatest influx of Irish immigrants, however, came to North America during the Great Potato Famine of the late 1840s. Thousands left Ireland at this time for North America and Australia. Many of those numbers, however, did not live through the long sea passage. These Irish settlers to North America were immediately put to work building railroads, coal mines, bridges, and canals. Irish settlers made an inestimable contribution to the building of the New World. Early North American immigration records have revealed a number of people bearing the Irish name Kilbride or a variant listed above, including:
Kilbride Settlers in the United States in the 19th Century
The Kilbride Family Crest was acquired from the Houseofnames.com archives. The Kilbride Family Crest was drawn according to heraldic standards based on published blazons. We generally include the oldest published family crest once associated with each surname.
This page was last modified on 6 November 2012 at 14:16.
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