Longford Ireland

Longford is in the Irish Midlands. It lies in the basin of the River Shannon, and the upper part of the County is in the catchment area of the River Erne, having Lough Gowna on its border with neighbouring County Cavan. County Longford ( Self Catering, Longford, Ireland) s a comparatively small county. The County was created in 1564, and took its name from the principal town, properly known as Longfort U�Fearghail, “O’Farrell’s landing place”. Known in earlier times as Annaly, the association of the area with the O’Farrells goes back to the ninth century. Despite the grant of the territory to the de Lacys in the twelfth century, the O’Farrells ruled until the beginning of the seventeenth century, when some plantation of English settlers took place.

Today, O’Farrell or Farrell is still the most dominant surname in the County. Other common surnames are, Quinn, Kenny, Kiernan, Mulvey, Smith, Leavy, Kelly, Glennon, Keenan, Casey and Murphy.

Longford (Accommodation, Longford, Ireland) lost almost one-third of its people to starvation and emigration between 1841 and 1851, the years of the Great Famine. And the loss continued in subsequent emigration: by 1986 the population was only a quarter of what it had been in 1841.

Longford Research Centre, Longford Roots, 1 Church Street, Longford, Co Longford, Ireland

Longford Roots undertakes research into the histories of families who were resident in County Longford before 1900. The Longford Heritage Company operates the Centre with the assistance of FAS. Since 1990 there have been trainees employed every year to index the parish records. FAS have a big input in Longfords Genealogy, and without their assistance we would have no Genealogy Centre in Longford.

Posted on April 16th, 2008 under Genealogy. Tags: 1 Church Street, Co. Longford, County Cavan, County Longford, English, FAS, Great Famine, Ireland, Longford, Longford Research Centre, Longford Roots, Lough Gowna, O'Farrell's, River Erne, River Shannon, susnames. Comments: 1