RESEARCHING THE ORIGIN OF THE GOONAN FAMILY IN IRELAND

By

Dr Bernard Barrett

State Historian for the Government of Victoria, Australia 14 Buley St., Hawthorn East

Melbourne, Victoria 3123, Australia

(ã June 1989)

Various people with the surname Goonan migrated from Ireland to the USA or Australia during the 19^th century, especially after the great famine of the 1840s. In many cases, their descendants have lost all contact with relatives in Ireland. Today, many Americans or Australians of Goonan descent do not even know the name of the Irish village or county from which their ancestors emigrated.

One way to discover the distribution of the Goonan surname in Ireland around the 1850s is to check Griffith’s Valuation of Ireland - Sir Richard Griffith’s multi-volume survey of Irish households in 1848-1864, undertaken by government order for taxation purposes. The Griffith volumes provide a house by house listing of every family in each townland and each parish at the time of the survey. A "townland" is the smallest administrative division of land in Ireland, with an average of 350 acres. Several townlands make up one parish. The term "parish" is used here in its civil (not ecclesiastical) sense - as a governmental division of territory for census and valuation purposes.

I have delved into the Griffith volumes covering four counties - Clare, Galway, Mayo and Roscommon. I found several clusters of households surnamed Goonan:

COUNTY MAYO: 12+ Goonan households in the townlands of Tullaghanbaun and Doohooma (Parish of Kilcommon), about 15 kilometers southwest of Bangor Erris.

COUNTY ROSCOMMON: 6 Goonan households.

COUNTY GALWAY: 3 Goonan households in the Parish of Ballynakill (around the town of Woodford).

GALWAY/CLARE BORDER: households surnamed Goonane (with a final "e") in the Parishes of Clonrush and Inishcaltra (around the towns of Whitegate and Mountshannon, County Clare) In some old documents the border area is shown as County Galway, not Clare. Some of these families later dropped the "e" from Goonane or changed the name to Guinane.

COUNTY CLARE: 7 households surnamed Goonan in the townland of Killeagy-Goonan (in the Parish of Killokennedy, near the village of Kilbane, between the towns of Broadford and Killaloe). Some of these later changed the name to Gunning. My own ancestors came from here, migrating to Australia in 1854.

In any discussion about the origin of the Goonan surname, we need to be cautious. It was a complex evolution. Our Goonan ancestors originally spoke the Gaelic language, and Goonan is an anglicized version of a Gaelic name. As English influence spread in Ireland, Gaelic surnames became anglicized either by being spelt phonetically in English or by being translated into an English word of similar meaning but different sound. Goonan is evidently the result of the former process.

A resident of Killeagy-Goonan in County Clare who understood Gaelic told me in 1980 that, to an English ear, the Gaelic name for Goonan might have sounded something like GOON-AWE-IN or perhaps GUNN-AWN and he said the Gaelic spelling would have been 0'Ghoidhneain. Although, (he added) it could be spelt nowadays in a shortened form perhaps as 0'Gunan. That however, is merely one person's theory in one county.

Other authorities give a different spelling. Patrick Woulfe (in Irish Names and Surnames, Dublin, 1923) and Edward MacLysaght (in The Surnames of Ireland, Dublin, 1978) both cite the Gaelic name 0'Gamhnain as the origin of Goonan and they mention the alternative forms of Goonane and Gunning. Woulfe suggests that 0'Gamhnain is derived from a Gaelic word meaning a calf. He says that 0'Gamhnain is anglicized in parts of Galway and Mayo not as Goonan but as Caulfield. Furthermore, Woulfe cites another Gaelic surname, 0'Gamhna (also derived from the Gaelic word for a calf), for which, he says, is anglicized as Gooney or Gaffney or sometimes Caulfield. Regardless of whether or, not Woulfe is correct about these forms we need to remember that the Gaelic surname of the ancient Goonans (however it was spelt in Gaelic) might have been translated into English in ways that bear no resemblance at all to the sound or spelling of Goonan. For my part, I am keeping an open mind on the question of' the origin of the name Goonan.

For, whatever reason, the name Goonan is not common in Ireland. A book entitled A Genealogical History of the Milesian families of Ireland, (Dublin 1968), contains a lengthy list of the main Surnames of Ireland, as shown in the birth registration indexes of 1890. The list is confined to names having five or more entries in the indexes, but the name Goonan (or Goonane) does not appear, This indicates that 1890 was not a good year for Goonan births or that the name is not statistically significant. There were, however, seven babies surnamed Guinane (including five in Tipperary) and thirteen surnamed Guinan (including ten in King's County), as well as twelve babies surnamed Gunning (chiefly in Northern Ireland), but I do not expect that many, if any, of these Guinanes and Gunnings would have been Goonan related. We need to remember that, although some Goonans in County Clare changed to the more recognizable spelling or Gunning, very few Gunnings are Goonans. The name Gunning has a separate history in Ireland that does not concern us here. I presume that the same applies to Guinane.

Too much focus on the evolution of the surname can be confusing. For people wanting to trace their Goonan ancestors, I believe that it is far more fruitful to obtain birth, marriage and death certificates in America or Australia, beginning with your parents and then working back through your grandparents to the first immigrant ancestor. The next step is to consult shipping passenger lists, showing the ship and date on which that ancestor traveled. In this process (possibly in the marriage certificates of your earliest Goonan relatives in America or Australia or in the birth certificates of their children), you might be lucky enough to discover the name of the civil parish or (preferably) the townland in which your ancestor was born in Ireland. Then you should check to see if that person or his or her parents were listed in the Griiffith Valuations in that particular district. If so, you can learn much about that household and its neighborhood.

My research into the Irish Goonans began with County Clare. I knew that was where my own Goonan ancestors had come from, but I also made some comparative investigations further north in localities were I heard about other Goonans - on both sides of' the Galway/Clare border and in parts of Mayo and Roscommon. The following are my findings about each of these localities.

1. Southeastern County Clare

I was born in Australia in 1934 and grew up knowing nothing of my Goonan ancestry except for a vague mention of County Clare. When I was in my early forties, I became increasingly curious about my background. In 1978 a Goonan cousin of mine in Australia (Mrs. Joan Southall) applied at the Victorian registry office in Melbourne to obtain copies of birth, marriage and death certificates of our clan. These documents certify that my mother was born Alice Goonan in Australia in 1911; my grandfather was Thomas Goonan, born in Australia in 1866; my great-grandfather was Patrick Goonan, born in County Clare, about 1838; and my great-great-grandfather was James Goonan, born in County Clare about 1800. From shipping passenger records, kept in the Victorian Public Record Office in Melbourne, we ascertained that my great-great-grandfather, James Goonan, migrated to Australia in 1854, accompanied by his wife Bridget and two children, Patrick, aged 16 and Annie, aged 12. James began working as a farm laborer in the Warrnambool district in western Victoria. During our research in Victoria we were surprised to learn that the family's surname was spelt in the 19th century records as Gunning, not Goonan. The shipping list has them as Gunning, and, when James's son Patrick was married in Victoria in 1857, at age 19, the surname was again given as Gunning. Until 1978, we had never heard the name Gunning-used' in connection with our family. Further investigation showed that six of the eleven children born to Patrick and his wife Catherine Whelan were registered as Gunning; these six include my grandfather, Thomas, born in 1866. The remaining four were registered as Gooning. Patrick's oldest son was married in 1881 under the name of Gooning. The family was already listed as Gooning in land-occupation records in Victoria in the 1870s, and they continued to be listed as Gooning until 1890. When my great-great-grandfather James died in Victoria in 1893, his death certificate was spelt as Goonan. Thereafter, all members of the family spelt the name as Goonan, which it has remained in our family in Victoria ever since.

Part of the explanation for the confusion about the spelling of the surname is that my great-great-grandfather and my great-grandfather could not read and write. Their official forms and certificates were completed by shipping clerks, public officials and clergymen who would have guessed the spelling of the surname as uttered in the thick Irish brogues of the immigrants. However, I later discovered that the same confusion between Goonan and Gunning was happening simultaneously in the Goonans' birthplace in County Clare.

Incidentally, although my great-great-grandfather brought only two children, Patrick and Annie, with him on the ship in 1854, his death certificate in 1893 states that he had five other children, named John, Mary, James, Thomas and Bridget. According to the death certificate (which might not necessarily be correct), John, Mary, James, Thomas and Bridget were dead by 1893. I do not know if any of these five settled in Australia. Did any of them remain in Ireland? Did any emigrate to Britain or to the United States? And did they use the surname Goonan or Gunning or both? Who knows? If anybody in the United States or elsewhere can provide a clue, I would be pleased if they would write to me.

When we began obtaining marriage certificates for the Gunning immigrants in Victoria, and later, birth certificates for the various Gunning children born in Victoria, we were frustrated to find that the family's place of origin in Ireland was given merely as "County Clare". Eventually however, we obtained a certificate that mentioned "Kilbane, County Clare".

Kilbane is a village situated in the civil parish of Killokennedy, between the towns of Broadford and Killaloe in the southeastern corner of County Clare, not far from Limerick County and Limerick City. The official Ordnance Survey maps of Ireland, compiled from 1840 onwards, show that Kilbane is surrounded by a number of townlands, one of, which is named Killeagy-Goonan. Two others are Killeagy-Ryan and Killeagy-Stritch. That is, the name Killeagy was used for three contiguous townlands with the surname of the most conspicuous family, Goonan, Ryan or Stritch being added for clarity. The townland of Killeagy-Goonan also appears in other government records.

According to the Census of Ireland, the townland of Killeagy-Goonan consists of 467 acres. In 1841, before for the onset of the Great Famine, it had 36 "houses" (although many of these by today's standards would have been merely cabins or huts) and a total of 191 people. By 1851 (during the famine years) this had decreased markedly to 21 houses with 109 people. There was a further decrease to 19 houses with 101 people by 1861 and 18 houses with 91 people by 1871.

The "houses" are shown as dots on the Ordnance Survey maps. There were houses shown in various parts of Killeagy-Goonan but the main cluster of them formed a hamlet on the Gap Road, a couple of miles east of Kilbane village, towards Killaloe. This hamlet, I learned when I visited the area in 1980, was where the Goonans in this district once lived. They were there for 150 years or more until the last Goonan moved from Killeagy-Goonan in the 1950s.

Although no Goonans (or Gunnings) live in Killeagy-Goonan today, we can see them listed in the Griffith Valuation - as Goonan, not Gunning. The Valuation had seven families surnamed Goonan in Killeagy-Goonan. The heads of the households were forenamed Michael (2), Thomas (2), John, James and Mary.

The Griffith Valuation has no Gunnings listed in Killeagy-Goonan. And, in fact, no Gunnings are listed anywhere in County Clare. At some stage in the 19th century, however, the Goonans in Killeagy-Goonan adopted the name Gunning. This process had evidently been completed by 1880 because I possess a copy of a birth certificate for Patrick Gunning (so spelt) who was born at Killeagy-Goonan on 25 May 1882. I obtained this certificate by applying at the County Clare registration office in Ennis in 1982. I had met Patrick's descendants in Ireland and they told me his date of birth enabling me to apply for the certificate. Although he was born in Killeagy-Goonan, Patrick ended up farming elsewhere. Patrick died in 1959, leaving eleven children who now live in various parts of Ireland and England; all are now called Gunning, but they recognize Goonan as an earlier form of their name.

A resident of Killeagy told me in 1980 an interesting theory of how the change from Goonan to Gunning occurred. He said that a family named Gunning moved into the Kilbane district at Ballymoloney, which is south of Kilbane village and also south of Killeagy-Goonan. This family was not related to the Killeagy-Goonan families. The Gunnings of Ballymoloney came from Castleconnell, which is situated a few miles away from Kilbane in County Limerick. Castleconnell is an anglicization of a Gaelic name, and the Gaelic name could also be rendered in English as Gunning's Castle. So my informant told me, the name Gunning caught on in Killeagy.

My informant also told me his theory about how the Goonan people first came to Killeagy. He said it is believed that the Goonans came down from County Galway or further north, following the west bank of the River Shannon. They were perhaps seeking refuge from some military disturbance, such as occurred in the 1690s. My informant pointed out that the name Goonan is still found in County Mayo and County Galway, as well as in Roscommon and Sligo.

He said that the Goonans came to Killeagy over the Gap Road - the road from Killaloe. They had previously settled at a place still known as Goonan's Hill in Garraunboy, west of Killaloe. In Killeagy, he said, the Goonans built a tan-hole and tanned leather, using the bark of the oak tree that at one time practically covered all Ireland. The location of the tan-hold at Killeagy-Goonan, my informant said, can still be distinguished. My informant thought that the Goonans would have acquired land in Killeagy by about 1600.

Most of the Goonan houses at Killeagy, shown in the 1840s Ordnance Survey map have now been demolished, although some are perhaps still being used as farmyard sheds. Three houses, once occupied by Goonans or Gunnings, still stand in the hamlet on the Gap Road, although I suspect that these were probably altered or even rebuilt during the past 100 years. The last Gunnings moved out of these three houses in the 1940s and 1950s. I have made contact with these Gunnings, and anybody wanting details should write to me.

The Killeagy families were not the only Goonans in County Clare. The Griffith Valuations also listed one Goonan (so spelt) in the neighboring Parish of Killaloe and two in the Barony of Ibrickan in west Clare. I have done no research on those. It is the Goonans or Gunnings of Killeagy who interest me most, because my own ancestors came from there.

Quite a few families from southeastern Clare, apart from the Gunnings, immigrated to Australia in the 1850s. The Australian colonies were absorbing migrants at that time, especially Victoria which was experiencing an economic boom based on a gold rush. There were migration schemes that assisted the fare for suitable families. Evidently a migration agent was active in County Clare recruiting families for Victoria.

This is not to say that any Goonan or Gunning emigrant from County Clare necessarily ended up in Australia. Usually, it was easier for Irish people to emigrate to the America or Britain than Australia, and I presume that various Goonans or Gunnings of Killeagy origin may now be living in American and Britain. I look forward to hearing from such people, especially if they have documented their ancestry by tracing back through birth, marriage and death certificates in the manner in which I have outlined above.

2. Galway/Clare border

For administrative and taxation purposes, 19th century Ireland was subdivided into "baronies" and "poor law unions", as well as "parishes" and "townlands". One barony, the Barony of Leitrim, included parishes on both sides of the Galway/Clare border. It seems that, for administrative purposes, the northeastern corner of County Clare, around today's towns of Whitegate and Mountshannon, was regarded as part of County Galway. In Samuel Lewis's Atlas of Ireland, 1837, the Whitegate/Mountshannon area is included in the map of County Galway, not the map of County Clare. Likewise, the Griffith Valuation of the Whitegate/Mountshannon area is in a section headed: "County Galway, Barony of Leitrim, Union of Scarriff." It is possible, therefore, that a 19th century birth certificate might describe someone as having been born in "County Galway", whereas in fact it might really have been in northeastern Clare.

3. County Galway

Another parish in the Barony of Leitrim is the Parish of Ballynakill, situated around the town of Woodford on the Galway side of the Galway/Clare border. The Griffith Valuation has three households surnamed Goonan (so spelt) in the Parish of Ballynakill. I have not investigated this further in the Valuation. Ballynakill is a large parish and I do not have the names of the townlands concerned.

In 1982 I visited a Mr. John Goonan (so spelt), who was then living at Looscawn, north of Gorteeny, three miles southeast of Woodford, on the road between Portumna and Whitegate. He told me he was reared in his present house, as was his father and possibly his father's father. He could not enlighten me about the history of Goonans in this area. I also heard in 1982 about a Mr. Harry Goonan, an elderly man, who was then living at Ballynagar, two miles north of Woodford on the road to Creggo, however, I did not have time to visit him.

These few lines about Goonans in County Galway might encourage someone to investigate further, preferably starting with birth, death and marriage certificates and the Griffith Valuation.

4. County Mayo

The Griffith Valuation has a number of families surnamed Goonan (so spelt) in the townlands of Tullaghanbaun and Doohooma, Parish of Kilcommon, Barony of Erris, Poor Law Union of Belmullet. This is on the Atlantic coast in one of the most remote parts of County Mayo.

In Tullaghanbaun, the heads of the Goonan household were forenamed as follows: Anthony (Thos.), Bryan, Anthony, Anthony jun., Timothy, Michael, Anthony (Tim), Thomas.

In Doohooma (adjoining Tullaghanbaun), the Goonan heads were forenamed: Mary, Anthony, Thomas, and John.

I visited this area in 1982 and stayed overnight at a newly built hotel, the Hotel Synge, a few miles away at Geesala. In Tullaghanbaun (in a house near the ferry terminal), I visited Mr. Michael Goonan, a youngish bachelor, who showed me around the district and introduced me to some of the Goonans there. Michael said there are now seven or eight Goonan families in this area and that it is the only part of Mayo in which the name Goonan exists. Anybody wanting to visit this district should try to contact Michael Goonan. In 1982 his address was Michael Goonan, Tullaghan Ferry, Geesala, Ballina, County Mayo.

5. County Roscommon

The Griffith Valuation has four Goonans (so spelt) in the Barony of' Castlereach and two in the Barony of Athlone.

The name Gunning appears in this county too, 9 Gunnings in the Barony of Castlereagh, 9 Gunnings in the Barony of Athlone and a couple of other Gunnings elsewhere in the county. I do not know if these Gunnings are connected with Goonans, but the possibility is worth investigating.

6. Conclusion

My search in the Griffith Valuations was not exhaustive. It would be worthwhile to check Limerick and Sligo, for example. In the City of Limerick, I notice that Ferrar's directory, published in 1769, had a Cornelius Goonan, haberdasher, and Lucas's directory of 1788 had a Kate Goonan, woolen and linen draper.

The Griffith Valuation is now available on microfilm in the major national and state libraries in the United States, Australia and elsewhere. Any budding Goonan family researcher ought to join a genealogical society and learn how to use the Griffith Valuation and other archival sources, including shipping and immigration records and especially your own family's birth, death and marriage certificates.

NOTE: from Kenneth D. Goonan, the submitter of this document.

This document was scanned and loaded into MS-Word 97 and slightly edited for spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors that were highlighted by MS-Word 97. The original photocopy of the document is available by request. I hope Dr. Barrett will be pleased if he sees his work posted at my website. He has done the Goonan Family a great service with his research. I am pleased to be able to post this document for all the Goonans in the Clan.