Comiskey Coat of Arms, Family Crest and Comiskey Family History

Comiskey Family History

The Comiskey 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 Comiskey include McComiskey, Cumiskey, Comaskey, Comesky, Commiskey, Cummiskey and Comerford. These names are derived from the Gaelic MacCumascaigh sept that was originally located in County Monagahan but was later found in Counties Longford and Cavan. A sept or clan was a collective term describing a group of persons whose immediate ancestors bore a common surname and inhabited the same territory. When Gaelic names were anglicized during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries they were often changed to Anglo equivalents that sounded most like their original Gaelic name. The name appears frequently in the Hearth Money Rolls between the years 1664 and 1666 in County Monaghan. It is also found in the Ormond Manuscripts in the seventeenth century. In County Down a lot of Comiskeys have kept the prefix 'Mac'. In Cavan some families of the name Comerford have changed their name to Comiskey. The Comiskey 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 Comiskey descendants.