O'Connor

John O'Connor

Saturday 02 September 2006 8:21:26 pm

O'Connor

Marilyn,
A large number of Wexford families emigrated to the Newfoundland/Nova Scotia region in the early years of the 19th century. O'Connor is a fairly common name in County Wexford, as in the rest of Ireland but the majority of these families were from one particular area of County Wexford. Most were from the South-Western area of the county. If you look on a map of the county the area would extend from Kilmore Quay on the South coast of Wexford westwards to the Hook Peninsula as far North as New Ross and east again to Taghmon. This is an area full of history being the first area the Normans seized on arrival in Ireland in 1169. Seafaring has a rich tradition here so knowledge of the Canadian Maritimes would be relatively common. Remember when researching that under British rule (up until 1921)all the resources of the state were concentrated on eliminating native Irish culture. For this reason my own family records show that the gaelic form of the name "O'Connor" was never used. All of my 18th and 19th century ancestors are recorded under the more English version of the name "Connors". I hope this helps. My own family are O'Connors from South Wexford and I have much background information if you are interested.