Welcome to the official Hennesy family website.
We are glad you stopped by. We hope you enjoy our pictures and family information.
Dun Aonghusa - Where It All Began
Background Photo: Dun Aonghusa (Aengus) - The Fort of Chieftain Aonghus, and historic birthplace of the "Hennesy" and "McGinnis" names. This fort was built around 900 b.c. and was inhabited until about 500 a.d.. O'Aonghusa is the Gaelic form of O'Hennesy, which our Hennesy name was formerly known as. Chieftain Aonghus was a member of a Scythian tribe known as Fir Bolgs. The Fir Bolgs were exploited as farm slaves to the Greeks. They were known for their large size, their strength and their ugly appearance. Chieftain Aonghus and many other Fir Bolgs escaped the Greeks and settled in the British Isles where they were later driven to the Atlantic coast of Ireland and the Aran Islands during Celtic and Norse invasions. Over time, the survivors of the Aonghus tribe and other Scythian tribes eventually dispersed among the new Celt and Norse inhabitants of the Aran and British Islands.
Our line is known as Scotts-Irish. They settled in Scottland where they later fled to Northern Ireland to flee opression of the times. Their stint in Northern Ireland didn't prove much better, so they did what was popular at the time and caught a ride on a ship to America.
Our new site:
Please be patient with me. I rebuilt the website and chose to publish it before it was 100% complete. I am carefully going through my genealogy information and hope to publish the most relevant pictures and information that I have available.
Thank you!
To all of our distant relatives and family friends that have taken the time to look at this website and respond with more information, pictures and especially those that have taken the time to review the "unidentified" family pictures and finally identify them. I am still amazed at how many emails I receive from visitors that end up being distant relatives of one branch or another. I even receive emails from families that were strong friends of our older family members that have precious information and pictures to share. Thanks so much to all of you.