Note on Irish Pedigrees

THE foregoing are the pedigrees of those of the Irish Gaels, or Milesian Irish families, which, as yet, we have been able to collect; and we need not say the collection and compilation of those genealogies were to us a "labour of love." In respect to any inaccuracies or blemishes which may still be found in the Work, we trust that the magnitude of our labour will plead our excuse. Any inaccuracies, however, which shall be pointed out to us, shall be corrected in future editions; and the blemishes, if any, expunged.

It will be observed that some of the genealogies are traced down to the time of the English invasion of Ireland; some, to the reign of Queen Elizabeth; some, to the Plantation of Ulster; some, to the Cromwellian, and others to the Williamite, confiscations; and some down to this year of our Lord, 1887. But we are satisfied that, so far as our sources of information enabled us to do so, each generation of each pedigree is herein faithfully recorded.

It will be also seen that, of those families whose pedigrees are continued down to 1887, some contain more generations than others; but this is easily accounted for by the fact, that many families were more long-lived than others; that many of the names recorded in the Irish Genealogies were Chiefs of Clans, and that the Chiefs of dominant Irish families in the past were often slain in early manhood: because, in war, the Chief headed his Clan, and, thus in front of the battle, was always exposed to the onslaught of his foe. Hence the average age of the generations is low in the Pedigrees of those families which longest continued to be dominant; thus accounting for the greater number of generations.

To render IRISH PEDIGREES as interesting as possible to future generations of those Irish, Irish-American, Norman-Irish, Anglo-Irish, Danish, Scottish, Welsh, Huguenot, and Palatine families, whose genealogies are recorded in the Work, we would receive reliable information from the representatives of those families, at home, or abroad, who can, from where we leave off in any genealogy, continue their pedigrees down to themsleves; with the view of having such information when verified, inserted in future editions of this Work. And, as the Work caters to tbe prejudices of no sect or party, there is no valid reason for withholding such information; on the contrary, the man who can assist in rescuing his family genealogy from oblivion, and will not do so, incurs, in our opinion, the reproach so justly applied by Sir Walter Scott, in the following lines, to him, if such there be, whose soul is dead to "Love of Country:"