O'Dee History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

• Origins Available:
• Ireland

Etymology of O'Dee

All Irish surnames have a unique and often romantic meaning. The name O'Dee originally appeared in Gaelic as Ó Deaghaidh or Ó Diaghaidh. 1

Early Origins of the O'Dee family

Early History of the O'Dee family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our O'Dee research. Another 137 words (10 lines of text) covering the years 1318 and 1434 are included under the topic Early O'Dee History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

O'Dee Spelling Variations

During the Middle Ages, a standardized literary language known by the general population of Ireland was a thing of fiction. When a person's name was recorded by one of the few literate scribes, it was up that particular scribe to decide how to spell an individual's name. So a person could have several spelling variations of his name recorded during a single lifetime. Research into the name O'Dee revealed many variations, including Day, Dea, O'Dea and others.

Early Notables of the O'Dee family

Notable among the family name at this time was Most Rev. Thomas O'Dea; and Cornelius O'Dea (d. 1434), Archdeacon of Killaloe and later Bishop of Limerick. Three items of his have survived over the centuries: his Mitre, Crozier and a manuscript now entitled "The Black Book of Limerick." Today, they are all kept in Limerick's Hunt Museum. "According to a legend Bishop Cornelius O'Dea went to Dublin to attend a synod of bishops without his...
Another 74 words (5 lines of text) are included under the topic Early O'Dee Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Migration of the O'Dee family

Ireland saw an enormous decrease in its population in the 19th century due to immigration and death. This pattern of immigration began slowly in the late 18th century and gradually grew throughout the early portion of the 19th century. However, a dramatic increase in the country's immigration numbers occurred when the Great Potato Famine struck in the 1840s. The early immigrants to North America were primarily destined to be farmers tending to their own plot of land, those that came later initially settled within pre-established urban centers. These urban immigrants provided the cheap labor that the fast developing United States and soon to be Canada required. Regardless of their new lifestyle in North America, the Irish immigrants to the United States and Canada made invaluable contributions to their newly adopted societies. An investigation of immigrant and passenger lists revealed many O'Dees: Stephen Day who became a prominent merchant in Virginia soon after arriving in 1638. Another Stephen Daye (1594-1668), was the first printer in New England, and produced the first book printed in the English colonies. Cambridge Massachusetts granted his three hundred acres of land for ".