O'Sullivan Family History & Genealogy

This is what I know for sure...My grandfather is Patrick Joseph O'Sullivan was born in Co Cork to Thomas O'Sullivan,& his wife, Catherine (Katy) Gulden(Golden?)in March,1906. He had brothers, Daniel,Timothy,John,a sister Katy & perhaps others. He is cousin of former Cork Lord Mayor and Daile member Toddy O'Sullivan Pat came to the US in the mid 1920's...as did Tim, but they did not come together. Pat worked for the Long Island railroad, making trips out to Montauk. He met and married Ruth Beckwith. They lived in Manhatten, where Ruth was a "super" of their apt building, and Pat kept working for the RR. After the birth of 7 children:Pauline,Thomas,Daniel,Catherine,Patrick,John & George, they moved to eastern Long Island in 1960. I'm hoping someone out there might recognize some of these names and help us to find family history.

Chateau du Gravier (also known as ‘Dunderry Chateau du Gravier’) is a nineteenth century renaissance castle outside of the village of La Guerche sur L'Aubois, Cher, France.

It is the residence of the O’Sullivan MacCragh, the senior sept of the O’Sullivan clan.

Related sites:

www.osullivanclan.com





The O’Sullivan clan is an ancient family. It emerged from the nearly impenetrable mist of prehistory as the ruling class of a small, wandering tribe of warrior Celts now called the ‘Gaels’. It seems most likely that the tribe originated in the Fertile Crescent, immigrated to the steppes of the Caucasus Mountains, fought and pillaged its way across southern Europe, and finally settled in its own “promised land”, the island of Eire.

It is universally agreed upon, by all credible annalists and historians, that the O’Sullivan clan represents the most senior bloodline of the Gaelic families. The senior tribe, and royal family, of the Gaelic Celts in Ireland was known as the Eoghanacht (pronounced Owen-noct), the descendants of Eoghan (pronounced Owen). The most senior branch of the Eoghanacht was the O’Sullivan clan. The O’Sullivan MacCragh, in turn, was the most senior sept of this illustrious family.

The significance of this can only be appreciated by comparing the status of the old Irish aristocracy with that of the rest of Europe. If the Irish had followed the English system of royal descent by primogeniture, and if Ireland had maintained its independence from England, an O’Sullivan MacCragh would be king of Ireland today. (Or an O’Sullivan MacCragh would have been beheaded by an angry republican mob in the aftermath of the French Revolution!)

Due to the peculiarities of the Irish Laws of Tanistry, however, no one named O’Sullivan has ever been a king. The use of surnames did not evolve until about the tenth century AD. By then the O’Sullivan clan was subservient to the cadet MacCarthy clan, which was in turn subservient to the even more junior O’Neill clan.

Finghin, king of Munster circa 600 AD, was an ancient ancestor of everyone named O’Sullivan and was the last person to sit on a throne in the line. About 400 years after Finghin had reigned over the southern half of Ireland, his great-great-great-great-great-great grandson, Eochaid, assumed the name Suileabhann (Sullivan) and thus a clan was born.

The O’Sullivan family can boast the oldest recorded, non-regnant, royal bloodline of western civilization. Its noble blood has christened the battlefields of the world for thousands of years. The family has produced paupers and kings, priests and pirates, scientists and wizards. It has fought its many battles with both pen and sword. It has survived the hazards of prehistoric Europe; the Egyptian, Greek and Roman empires; the Dark Ages; the plagues; the Vikings; the Anglo-Normans; Queen Elizabeth; the Cromwellian holocaust; the penal laws; the potato famine; and two world wars.

One branch of the O’Sullivan MacCragh sept of Cappanacush Castle, County Kerry, Ireland, later acquired Dunderry Castle (Dun Daire, Fort of the Oak Wood) in the village of La Guerche sur l’Aubois, near Nevers, France.

Many other noble families of Ireland settled in Catholic France after losing their estates in Ireland:

O’Connor: Chateau du Bignon-Mirabeau
O’Mahony: Chateau de Pont Bellanger
O’Kelly Farrell: Chateau La Soriniere
Walsh: Chateau de Serrant
Hennessy: Chateau de St. Brice
Phelans: Chateau Phelan-Segur
O’Byrne: Chateau La Houringue
Lynch: Chateau Lynch-Bages
MacCarthy Reagh: Chateau St. Gery
MacMahon-O’Sullivan Beara: Chateau Sully
In addition to the nobles, in the seventeenth century there was also a large immigration of Irish soldiers to the continent romantically known as ‘Les Oies Sauvages – The Wild Geese’. These men formed the various regiments of the Irish Brigades and fought valiantly for their adopted French homeland. Variations of Irish surnames can still be found throughout France as a result of this exodus. The Leaders of the Regiments of the Wild Geese that fought for France were:

Colonel William Stanley: 1596-1604
Colonel Henry O’Neill: 1605-1610
Colonel John O’Neill: 1610-1628
Colonel Hugh O’Donnell: 1632-1638
Colonel Hugh O’Donnell: 1632-1638
Colonel Owen Roe O’Donnell: 1633-1642
Colonel John Barry: 1636
Colonel Patrick Fitzgerald: 1639-1641
Patrick O’Donnell: 1643-1647
Colonel Dermot O’Sullivan Mor: 1646-1647
Colonel John Murphy: 1646-1659
Colonel Dudley Costelloe: 1653
Colonel Charles Cary Dillion: 1653
Colonel Richard Grace: 1658
Philip O’Reilly: 1655-1660
Colonel George Cusack: 1656-1662
Colonel Louis Farrell: 1658-1660
Colonel James Dempsey: 1660-1662
Colonel Theodore O’Meara: 1660-1664
Colonel John Murphy: 1667-1669
Colonel Denis O’Byrne: 1673-1686
Charles O’Sullivan of Nantes was the grandson of an Irish emigrant who was sent to the guillotine for being a royalist. His brother John, a respected fencing master, was also tried but found to be innocent.

My great-great-grand-father Jeremiah O'Sullivan was walking along on the board sidewalk one day and an English 'Peeler' was walking on the same sidewalk in the opposite direction. The Peeler demanded that Jeremiah step off the boardwalk into the mud so he could freely swagger along on the clean boardwalk. Jeremiah responded; "This is Ireland, and I am Irish. You get out of my way". The Peeler raised his Billy club and Jeremiah introduced him to the working end of a shillelagh. The Peeler woke up stuffed in a garbage can. The Judge gave Jeremiah three days to get out of Ireland. Jeremiah replied he only needed one and left Ireland.

It appears Jeremiah was head of the household in Ireland, since Jeremiah & Mary (Hammil) O Sullivan, Jeremiah & Catherine O Sullivan, Patrick O Sullivan, Lenora O Sullivan, and Patrick William Hammil left Ireland as a clan. Upon landing in Boston, Jeremiah denounced everything Irish and dropped the 'O' from the last name.

It seems the others did likewise. Since, before the 1850 census, they all moved to Pike County, Indiana. They lived as neighbors in three out of four houses in a row. Most Irishman living in Pike County, Indiana worked on the Wabash-Erie Canal, and attended Catholic Church in neighboring Daviess County, Indiana.

Jeremiah was born in about 1808, in County Cork, Ireland, his wife Mary was born in about 1819, also in Ireland. After they settled in Indiana, they had five children; Mark, Flurey (Florence), Patrick, Jeremiah Jr., and Honora. Sometime around 1854 they moved to Illinois where they had two more children; Christopher and Cornelius.

During the 1850 Indiana Census of 1850, Jeremiah & Mary were registered as Jerey and Mary Sulavan, but Jerry's name was corrected by the time Jeremiah, Jr. was born in 1853. Jerey was a family farmer and died in Washington, Carroll County, Illinois. Mary also died in Washington, Illinois.