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FITZPATRICK Family of
C19th Ballinavar, Co. Cork, Ireland
Family name derived from "son of Patrick"
Seeking C19th ancestry of FITZPATRICK
family who married a Johanna.
Marriage not found and her family name unconfirmed, but Johanna
died 4.8.1894.
Children married into the Cork families of O'NEILL, O'DONOVAN, HAYES & O'SULLIVAN.
File is made available on the understanding that any additions, corrections and new links will be reported back to help future research.
(Please note: This research is inherited from my late father-in-law only.)
Extracted Historical Irish Notes:
This is the only surname with the prefix Fitz which is of native Irish origin, the others being Norman. The Fitzpatricks are Macgilpatricks - Mac Giolla Phadraig in Irish, meaning son of the servant or devotee of St. Patrick. In C16th & C17th records they are usually called MacGilpatrick or MacKilpatrick; and in some places they still are; other variants being McIlpatrick, Kilpatrick, etc., the latter is common in Ulster, where, it is usually of Scottish origin. The eponymous ancestor was Giolla Padraig, a warlike chief in Ossory who lived in the second half of C10th. Branches of the sept are now found in many parts of Ireland.
In Ireland today, the name is widely distributed, with Leix (alias Queen's Co.) having the greatest number. The head of the most important family was during the Gaelic period known as Lord of Upper Ossory, at one time almost a royal ruler over counties Leix and Kilkenny. Their power was much reduced by the rise of the Ormond Butlers, but they were one of the first of the great Irish septs to submit to Henry VIII and one Sir Barnaby Fitzpatrick was knighted in 1568.
They lost considerably through their loyalty to James II. Nevertheless the head of the family received a peerage in 1714 and in 1878 his descendants are recorded as possessing no less than twenty-two thousand acres of the best land in Ossory. One branch of the Fitzpatricks of Ossory assumed the surname MacSeartha, or Shera in English, taken from an ancestor with that Christian name. Many variants of the name, in addition to those given above, are recorded in the modern birth registers with more or less obvious abbreviations like Fitz, Fitch and Patrick, but even Parrican, Parogan and Patchy!
Brian Fitzpatrick (1585-1652), Vicar Apostolic of Ossory, who was murdered by Cromwellian soldiers, was instrumental in saving the "Book of the O'Byrnes", which he transcribed, from destruction. In modern times, apart from the Earls of Upper Ossory, several Fitzpatricks were prominent in politics, two in the English interest and another Patrick Vincent Fitzpatrick (1792-1865) was one of Daniel O'Connell's most trusted colleagues. Also worthy of mention are William John Fitzpatrick (1830-1898), the biographer, and Thomas Fitzpatrick (1832-1900), an eminent physician.
More on the Fitzpatricks will be found in Corrigan's History of the Diocese of Ossory, Vol 1.
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