Heritage help?

Question

okay my mom never married by her last name is Shanahan...

is that a Irish last name/??? i remmeber them telling me

my grandpa is german....?????? so does that mean i may have irish in me or is Shanahan common for german people??????

Answer 1

Shanahan is Irish

http://www.houseofnames.com/xq/asp.c/qx/...

Answer 2

You can go around in circles, if you rely on any name "being Irish" or whatever.  The fact is that your heritage is ALL your ancestors, and there are many reasons why the name is not reliable.  One, whether or not mom married dad, you STILL are his biological descendent (and carry that background).

Is your grandfather's name Shanahan? The question is.. where are HIS ACTUAL ancestors from?  If he is (as you say) of German background, then it is completely possible he came by the name through an adoption.  If not him, perhaps one of his ancestors.  If there was an adoption (which you will not know, unless you do the research), then obviously Shanahan won't be a valid Irish background for you.  The "valid" background would be that of the bio parents, not the adoptive ones.

The bottom line is that you can learn where a surname comes from, but it is NOT ALWAYS the same as where the persons come from.  They are two distinct topics.

YOU will not know for sure what your 'heritage' really is, without doing the research of the persons that you are actually related to.

Answer 3

You're probably right that your Grandfather is 1/2 Irish, 1/2 German.  You can be sure that his father was Irish with the name Shanahan.  

SHANAHAN - Origin: Irish

Spelling variations of this family name include: Shanahan, O'Shanahan, Shahan, Shannon, Gilshenan and many more.

First found in county Clare, where they held a family seat from very ancient times.  Some of the first settlers of this family name or some of its variants were: Charles Shannon, who arrived in America in 1742; James Shanahan, who was a laborer in St. John's, Newfoundland, in 1779; Bridget Shannon, who was on record in Massachusetts in 1813.

http://search.swyrich.com/searchresults....

Ancestry.com shows the majority of Shanahans imigrated from Ireland.   These stats are for NY passenger lists showing the country of origin and number of people who came to American in the late 1800s/early 1900s

Ireland 901

Great Britain 115

England 48

Bridge Pert Ct 7

Scotland 5

Co. Limerick 3

There are several records for Eileen Shanahan but without knowing her approximate year of birth and state where she lived, there are too many to list.  Check out this message board - people researching Eileen Shanahan.

http://boards.ancestry.com/SearchResults...

Answer 4

Same for me but my mom took my father's name ( maybe they did get married but we can't find a record ?)  He was Irish so my surname is Irish but I was raised by my maternal grandfather who was from Germany.

So I'm Irish-German and so are you.  You may have other nationalities from great grandparents, too.  My kids are English / Irish/ Scotch/ German & 1/8 Sweedish --My husband's grandmother came from Sweeden!

By the way, one of my best friend's maiden name was Shanahan & it's very Irish & she was very proud of her heritage.