Gogerty Coat of Arms, Family Crest and Gogerty Family History

Gogerty Family History

The Gogerty ancient family history was found in the irishsurnames.com archives.

Surnames developed a wide number of variants over the centuries. Many different spelling variations of the same name can be traced back to a single original root. Also, when a bearer of a name emigrated from Ireland it was not uncommon that their original name would be incorrectly transcribed in the record books upon arrival at their new location. Some names have dozens of spelling variations. Some Surnames were also altered over the years based on how they sounded phonetically, by their sound, and depending on the prevailing political conditions it may have been advantageous to change a name from one language to another. This was especially so in Ireland where most Gaelic names were 'anglicized' at some stage.

Variants of the name Gogerty include Gogarty and O'Gogarty. This name in Irish is MagFhogartaigh and the latter variants are the anglicized form of this. This sept came from South Ulster.

A sept or clan is a collective term describing a group of persons whose immediate ancestors bore a common surname and inhabited the same territory. It is also the case that many Irish septs or clans that are related often belong to a larger groups, sometimes called tribes. For example the 'Tribes of Galway' consisted of fourteen distinct families. The 'Tribes of Kilkenny' were ten families, etc.

They were an independent sept and were located in the Counties of Louth, Meath and Monaghan. The earliest reference to the name was recorded in the ancient text 'The Four Masters' in the death of Ruaidhri Mac Fogartaigh, Lord of south Breagh, in Meath, in the year 1027, he being the eponymous ancestor of the family. The name is again found in records in 1647 when a Patrick Gogarty was recorded as a soldier in Colonel Bagly's regiment. The best known of the sept was Oliver Saint John Gogarty, 1878-1957, the renowned physician and poet.The Gogerty family crest (or coat of arms) came into existence many centuries ago. The process of creating these coats of arms began as early as the eleventh century although a form of Proto-Heraldry may have existed in some countries prior to this, including Ireland. The new more formalized art of Heraldry made it possible for families and even individual family members to have their very own family crest, coat of arms, including Gogerty descendants.