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REQUEST FOR SCHOLARSHIP: The name Drough (Drew)

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Dan Drew

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Feb 8, 2001, 4:20:27 PM2/8/01
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I have read with fascination the many queries and responses regarding
Irish names during the past months since monitoring this NG; but have
never before queried the group regarding my own name, DREW.

I have read several "standard" versions and queried a few genealogists
about it; but, somehow I've never had the feeling that anyone has really
"nailed" it. I have the Drew page from Dr. McLysaught's book; and it
was even my pleasure to meet him in 1971. He was most fascinated with
the "evolution" of the name in the parish records at Milltown in
Westmeath; and I have written about this at
http://netdirect.net/~dandrew/Genealogy/DREW/DrewHistory.html His book
even contains the quote that "In Westmeath, the names Drew and Drought
are synonymous."

Tradition (as well as the Drews still living in Westmeath) assert that
the name used to be pronounced "Drooch" ...having a very soft gutteral
sound at the end just as the names McCullogh, and others. This sound at
the end probably represents a letter of the Gaelic alphabet. Further
proof regarding the presence of a "strange sound" at the end of the name
is found in the church records themselves. As the priests attempted to
translate all the Irish names into Latin (Roman alphabet) there is a
gradual progression of spellings which seems to change with each priest
over the years. In the 1780's until well into the 1800's the name was
spelled "Drought" by the priests. Then as time went by, the priests
would use spellings such as "Druach" and "Dreugh" ...even though it is
clear from the records that this is the same family.

By the 1830's, all of the schools had been "Anglicized" and the priests
were entering all the baptisms, marriages, and deaths with the spelling
"Drew." As far as we know, Drew is the only spelling that was ever used
by the family after arrival in the U.S.

It has been clear from several posts here, that there are scholars in
this newsgroup who have access to information about names that
transcends the sources I have checked so far. I would very much
appreciate it if the scholars in the group, or anyone with appropriate
resources, could see what you can find out about this name.

Thanks!

Dan Drew
Indianapolis
of the Westmeath Droughts

Cathy Joynt Labath

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Feb 8, 2001, 10:10:29 PM2/8/01
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----- Original Message -----
From: Dan Drew <dand...@home.com>
To: <GENI...@rootsweb.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 08, 2001 3:20 PM
Subject: REQUEST FOR SCHOLARSHIP: The name Drough (Drew)

: By the 1830's, all of the schools had been "Anglicized" and the priests


: were entering all the baptisms, marriages, and deaths with the spelling
: "Drew."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I am not a scholar, but here is my info on the two variations of the
surname.

INDEX TO THE MARRIAGES IN
WALKER'S HIBERNIAN MAGAZINE
1771 to 1812
By Henry Farrar; London, England; 1890

DREW
Drew, Barry=Paul, Miss, co. Kilkenny Feb. 1772 p. 112
Goggin, Stephen, printer, Limerick=Drew, Eliza, d. of late L., Seariff, co.
Clare May 1809 p. 320
Drew, Francis, Drewsburgh, Court, co. Clare=Odel, Frances 7 Apr 1777 p. 296
Drew, Francis, Mocollop, co. Waterford=Boyd, Amy, d. of late Hegatt, Rossa,
co. Wexford June 1791 p. 568
Drew, Francis, Drewscourt=Langford, Miss, d. of late Lloyd, at Limerick June
1796 p. 568
Drew, Francis, of Drewsborough=Eyre, Miss, £20,000, s. to Col., n. to late
Lord, 1st cousin to Visct. Dunlo. Feb 1801 p. 127
Drew, Francis, Drewsborough=Down, Miss, d. of John, of Ennis, in Limerick
May 1808 p. 319
Drew, Ringrose, Drewsborough, co. Clare=Wallington, Alicia,d. of John, at
Killosbant, co. Tipperary Nov. 1803 p. 703
Douglas, rev. Arch. Edw. R. of Carnallway and Oughtreagh, in Ireland=Drew,
Lady Susan, d. of late Earl of Dunmore, in London Sep. 1809 p. 544
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
DROUGHT
Drought, Miss=Burr, John Smith Mar 1773 p. 160
Spunner, L., s. of Thomas, Milltown, King's co=Drought, Elizabeth, d. of
John, of Whigsboro', same co. Oct. 1796 p. 384
Drought, Geo. Mears John, Willsborough, co. Wicklow=Acton, Jane, y.d. of
Thomas, at West Aston, co. Wicklow July 1805 p. 446
Drought, John, jr. Whigsborough, King's co.=Perceval, Miss, e.d. of late
rev. Philip, Temple house, co. Sligo Jan 1806 p. 63
Drought, Rbt. =Bristow,Miss, e.d. of Roger, of Baggot St. Mar. 1796 p. 288
Drought, Capt. Wm Beasley, Prince of Wales Light Dragoons=Homan, Miss, d. of
Rhd. of Moat, co. Westmeath.7 July 1774 p. 430
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
The Index to Prerogative Wills of Ireland lists 27 entries for DREW, the
earliest recorded 1631 for Drew, Gilbert, Dublin, Tailor. There are about 31
entries for DROUGHT, the earliest recorded 1698 for Drought, William,
Kilmagarvoge, co. Carlow, gent.

Dan Drew

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Feb 9, 2001, 9:22:16 AM2/9/01
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Cathy,

Thanks very much for checking out the surname references for Drew &
Drought and taking the time to type them up. I did not have these
references.

The Captain Drought who married the Homan Girl from Moate may turn out
to be a "connection" ...but tradition is that none of our family ever
achieved a title higher than school teacher. I'll surely check this
out.

Meanwhile, I have a small (I hope) request if you can find the time.
Could you check the references to see if there are other "variations" of
the name such as "Dreugh," "Druach," or "Drough?" I believe there are
several variations which occurred as the Catholic Clergy translated the
original Gaelic into "Roman" ...though the name was always pronounced
"drookh"

Ultimately it is my hope that one of the "Gaelic scholars" will chime in
with a "direct hit" on the ancient origins of the name. None of the
many references I have checked has ever really given a satisfactory
etymology of the name.

I am in awe of your Palo Alto County website. I'm especially fascinated
by what may have been a "mass migration" from county Mayo to Iowa.
[Such phenomena were recently discussed at soc.genealogy.com. My
grandmother's lineage is from Claremorris, County Mayo. [Gordon, Hurst,
Martin & Leonard] My gggrandfather, Patrick Gordon spent some time in
prison with Parnell. My gggrandmother Mariah Hurst was born Mariah
Fitzgerald... which caused my grandmother to be third cousin to Rose
Fitzgerald Kennedy who begot JFK, et. al. ...but that's more than
enough recitation.

Thanks again for the look up!

Dan Drew
of the Westmeath Droughts

Pat Traynor

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Feb 9, 2001, 1:53:20 PM2/9/01
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Something to consider...........
The French Huguenot name of DROUET was anglicised in Ireland as
DROUGHT and DREWITT. If DROUGHTs lived in areas of Huguenot
populations, then they may well have been Huguenots and not native Irish.


Quoting..... Dan Drew <dand...@home.com>

>"In Westmeath, the names Drew and Drought
>are synonymous."

>........... In the 1780's until well into the 1800's the name was


>spelled "Drought" by the priests. Then as time went by, the priests
>would use spellings such as "Druach" and "Dreugh" ...even though it is
>clear from the records that this is the same family.
>

>By the 1830's, all of the schools had been "Anglicized" and the priests
>were entering all the baptisms, marriages, and deaths with the spelling

>"Drew." As far as we know, Drew is the only spelling that was ever used
>by the family after arrival in the U.S.

Patrick Traynor, in California's gold-rush country. tr...@jps.net
TRAYNOR'S Web Page (Irish stuff) http://members.nbci.com/pattraynor/

Dan Drew

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Feb 9, 2001, 9:25:16 PM2/9/01
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An astute idea, Pat... and maybe the answer. The idea of a Huguenot origin
has been considered and (tentatively) discarded because of the known fact
that our Westmeath "Drought's" were practicing Roman Catholics as far back
(1780's) as we can trace them. It is always possible that they "converted"
at some time prior to that, however. I believe the Huguenot "migration" to
Ireland was much earlier; but you'll have to fill me in on that history. My
sister, in fact, married happily into a family of Irish Huguenot origins
[Campaigne]; so it is not likely we will forever abandon this hypothesis
unless we prove some other origin for "Drought."

Thanks for the interesting reply!

Dan

ruth_mi...@my-deja.com

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Feb 12, 2001, 2:28:59 AM2/12/01
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Dan, Cathy,

I hope you don't mind me weighing in with a little
on the Drew name. I am descended from the Anglo-
Irish Drew family whose first Irish settlers came
from Somerset England around 1600 and settled
across the south especially in Kerry, Waterford,
Cork, Clare and Limerick. Among their number were
the people you listed under "Drew" in your list
Cathy. Their Drew name was originally a Norman
first name "Drogo", pronounced something like
"Druge" but was anglicised to Drew in the middle
ages.

In "The Drews of Dromlohan" (Carol Baxter 1996),
the author refers to a book "More Irish Families"
(Dr Edward MacLysaght 1960). She says:

"MacLysaght writes of a surname found in the
barony of Kenry in county Limerick ... 'Another
somewhat similar surname (to Drew) in Irish is O
Droichid. This rare name was found at Kenry, Co.
Limerick, in 1587. It was then anglicized as
O'Drehitt, but has since become Bridgeman by semi-
translation (droichead means a bridge) ...'"

I cannot find any Gaelic word "drought", but this
would be similar in pronunciation to "droichaid"
or "droichead", the Gaelic word for "bridge", and
may be another spelling variation. I have also
seen reference to the name "O'Drea" as being a
source of the Irish name Drew. This would tie in
with droichead/droichaid/o'drehitt/drought. The
pronunciation is something like "drayet".

Further to the mention of people in Limerick whose
name originated from the Gaelic version of Drew,
there were several Drew families in Limerick and
Cork who do not seem to fit into the Anglo-Irish
Drew family. Not only don't they fit, but their
male first names, instead of being George,
Francis, Barry and Edward (as in the Anglo-Irish
family) were mostly Daniel (like you), Michael and
Patrick. John, James and William occurred in both
families. These Drews were Catholic, whereas the
Anglo-Irish Drews were Church of Ireland. It is my
suspicion that they were Gaelic Irish and that
they did not acquire their Drew name via the
Anglo-Irish family.

It is possible that you might also be related to
people with names like Bridgeman and O'Drea as
well as Drew.


Sent via Deja.com
http://www.deja.com/

ru...@bushtraks.com

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Feb 12, 2001, 2:39:44 AM2/12/01
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Dan, Cathy,

I hope you don't mind me weighing in with a little
on the Drew name. I am descended from the Anglo-
Irish Drew family whose first Irish settlers came

from Somerset England in the late 1500s and


settled across the south especially in Kerry,
Waterford, Cork, Clare and Limerick. Among their
number were the people you listed under "Drew" in
your list Cathy. Their Drew name was originally a
Norman first name "Drogo", pronounced something
like "Druge" but was anglicised to Drew in the
middle ages.

In "The Drews of Dromlohan" (Carol Baxter 1996),
the author refers to a book "More Irish Families"
(Dr Edward MacLysaght 1960). She says:

"MacLysaght writes of a surname found in the
barony of Kenry in county Limerick ... 'Another
somewhat similar surname (to Drew) in Irish is O
Droichid. This rare name was found at Kenry, Co.
Limerick, in 1587. It was then anglicized as
O'Drehitt, but has since become Bridgeman by semi-
translation (droichead means a bridge) ...'"

I cannot find any Gaelic word "drought" (or
"drough"), but this would be similar in


pronunciation to "droichaid" or "droichead", the
Gaelic word for "bridge", and may be another
spelling variation. I have also seen reference to
the name "O'Drea" as being a source of the Irish
name Drew. This would tie in with droichead/
droichaid/o'drehitt/drought. The pronunciation is
something like "drayet".

Further to the mention of people in Limerick whose
name originated from the Gaelic version of Drew,
there were several Drew families in Limerick and
Cork who do not seem to fit into the Anglo-Irish
Drew family. Not only don't they fit, but their
male first names, instead of being George,
Francis, Barry and Edward (as in the Anglo-Irish
family) were mostly Daniel (like you), Michael and
Patrick. John, James and William occurred in both
families. These Drews were Catholic, whereas the
Anglo-Irish Drews were Church of Ireland. It is my
suspicion that they were Gaelic Irish and that
they did not acquire their Drew name via the
Anglo-Irish family.

It is possible that you might also be related to
people with names like Bridgeman and O'Drea as
well as Drew.

Ruth Miller

Len Camp

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Mar 17, 2021, 12:30:10 PM3/17/21
to
Well, 20 years on but I came across your conversation during a search.

Dan Drew mentioned: "...My sister, in fact, married happily into a family of Irish Huguenot origins [Campaigne]..."

With regard to Irish Huguenot origins, I am quite certain my ancestors fled France and settled in Ireland c1690.
I have some reference to County Cavan in birth records and pre-Canada census data dating back to the mid-1700s.
Some of the Campaigne clan from Ireland emigrated to Canada and others to the United States of America.

I would be interested to know your sister's name and which Campaigne family she married into to see if I have that branch.

Leonard O. Campaigne, Lieutenant-Colonel (RCAF, Retired)
El Mirage, Arizona, USA
Leonard....@gmail.com
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