I'm interested in finding current and past O'Phee's. It seems as though it's an uncommon name and I don't know any other than immediate family. Our family lives in Michigan and I want to find out at what point the O'Phee's came to Canada. I believe my great great grandpas name was John O'Phee and born in Ireland 1864.
Tuesday 26th Feb 2013, 02:26PM
Message Board Replies
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Hi,
I suspect your O'PHEE name is a phoenetic spelling of O'FEE. I checked for O'PHEEs in the GRIFFITH's Valuation and did not find any. However, there were nine O'FEEs listed and are only found in Northern Ireland:
7 in County Antrim
1 in County Derry
1 in Befast City
You should not neglect Mac FEE (20 found) and FEE (172 found)
I checked in MacLysaght's Surnames in Ireland and did NOT find the name O'PHEE but do find the following:
(O) FEE, FEY, FOY, FYE - All these are variant anglicized forms of ? Fiaich. They are occasionally changed to Fay by absorption or made HUNT by pseudo-translation; in modern contracted spelling fiach (raven) and fiadhach (hunt) are identical. The most numerous of the forms given above are FEE (in Fermanagh, Armagh and Cavan) and FOY (Cavan and north Connacht). MIF
Since you believe your man was born in 1864, you should try to get a copy of his birth record from the GRO, see: http://www.groireland.ie/
I checked the birth records collection for Ireland on www.familysearch.org and find 13 possibilities (search of John O'PHEE). See:
and 173 found for John O'FEE ar: https://familysearch.org/search/record/results#count=20&query=%2Bgivenname%3Ajohn~%20%2Bsurname%3Ao'fee~%20%2Bbirth_year%3A1864-1870~&collection_id=1408347
Good Luck to you.
James McNamara
Feakle Clare Admin
Thursday 28th Feb 2013, 06:02AM