Edward Coyne 1839-1915

Hello,

Are you sure he was born in KILLARNEY and not KILKENNY?  I'm finding the name Coyne abundant in Kilkenny but not in Killarney.

In his Surnames of Ireland, MacLysaght says that Coyne is originally a County Mayo surname, although some may well have migrated to Kilkenny, as Patricia found.  The O'Neal/O'Neil surname originated in several places in Ireland, and can be found all over the country, but perhaps the largest clan was/is in Ulster.  A number of the Ulster O'Neil's migrated to Mayo at the time of the Plantation of Ulster (17th century).  There is an O’Neill heritage project headed by Sean O’Neill (to whom I am distantly related), who is from the O’Neill branch in County Mayo, and whose email address is sean@oneill.ie .  His family comes from near Swineford in East Mayo, but his research also covers Ulster and other parts of Ireland, so he might be able to help you locate more information about your ancestors.

O'Coyne is an anglicization of the Irish name Ó Cadhain, which means "descendant of the wild geese".  Kyne was another anglicized form, based on the sound of the name, but the name was sometimes "translated" as Barnacle (referring to the wild barnacle geese), so if you come across any of them in your research, they could be related.  There is a separate Irish name, Mac Giolla Chaoine ("son of the devotee of the gentle one" -- presumably referring to some ancient monk or saint) which was usually anglicized as MacKilcoyne or just Kilcoyne.  Since these were all Mayo names, Kilcoyne and Coyne were sometimes confused with one another.

Thank you