CROMIE



Two alternative Irish forms for Cromie are given. viz Ó Cromtha and Cromtha. Cromtha means crooked. Some Irish Cromies and Crummys, who belong almost to Down and adjacent Ulster counties, are of Scottish descent. In Scotland the name Cromie is well known. It derives from the place Crombie in Aberdeenshire: the B is not pronounced. In Ulster the Scottish surname Abercrombie is sometimes abbreviated to Crombie, sometimes pronounced written Cromie. John Cromie was prominent among the defenders of Derry in 1689. That the Cromies may also be Irish Gaels is indicated by the fact the Petty's "census" of 1659 records five families of O'Cromy in the barony of Armagh. A Fiant of 1602 mentions Teig McConnogher O'Cromy, yeoman, of Dromkarra (Co. Cork). In the previous century O'Crome and O'Croyme occur in counties Meath and Galway and these may be earlier forms of the same surname.

The rugged west coast of Scotland and the desolate Hebrides islands are the ancestral home of the Crombie family. Their name indicates that the original bearer lived in the place Crombie, in the parish of Aucterless in the shire of Aberdeen.The place-name Crombie was originally derived from the Gaelic term "crom," which means "crooked."  Spelling variations include: Crombie, Cromby, Crommie, Crommy, Cromy, Cromie, Crumbie, Crummie, Crumby, Croombie, Croommie and many more.

First found in Aberdeenshire where they were seated from very ancient times, on the lands of Crummy The land belonged to the Abbey of Culross, which was built on land gifted by Malcolm, 7th Earl of Fife, in 1217, during the reign of Alexander II.

The Irish names O'Callaghan and Callahan are derived from the native Gaelic O'Ceallachain Sept. The name is taken from a word meaning 'strife'. Ceallachain was a ninth century King of Munster and it is in Cork that a large proportion of descendants can still be found. The Sept moved to County Clare in the seventeenth century where the town of O'Callaghans Mills still exists

The earliest mention in the Annals of Ulster is when Nial Ó Ceilechain and his brother Trenfher were blinded by the sons of the King of Ulster in 1044.
Murchadg Ua Ceallachain, a grandson of Ceallachan, was the first to transit the surname hereditarily. His nephew Carthach was the ancestor of the MacCarthys, and a bloody succession feud between the MacCarthys and the O'Callaghans continued well into the twelfth century, ending with the MacCarthys in the ascendant.
By the end of the thirteenth century the O'Callaghans had taken decisive possession of that part of Co Cork which came to be known as Pobal Ui Cheallachain, O'Callaghans Country. This was a very large area on both sides of the river Blackwater west of the modern town of Mallow. Here their principal bases were the castles at Clonmeen and Dromaneen, and from them they retained virtually uninterrupted control for over four centuries, containing many of the earlier Gaelic customs. The most notorious of these was the creach or cattle-raid; one Donncha, chief of the family from 1537 until his undeservedly peaceful death in 1578, was reputed to have carried out two hundred raids in every county of Munster, evidently regarding the creach as a vital part of his cultural inheritance.
In the great confiscation’s following the wars of the seventeenth century the family lost virtually everything. The ruling chief, Donncha O'Callaghan, and his extended family were transplanted to east Clare, where they obtained land in the barony of Tulla. The village of O'Callaghans Mills records their continued presence.
Like so many others from the old Gaelic aristocracy, members of this Clare family emigrated to continental Europe. A descendant of this caln was James Louis (Cornelius) O'Callaghan of Baden-Baden, a captain in O'Brien's regiment in the service of France who died in 1717. He descended from Cahir O'Callaghan, of Dromine, County Cork In 1944 one of his descendants, Don Juan O'Callaghan of Tortosa, was recognised by the Genealogical Office as the senior descendant in the line of the last inaugurated chief, the Donncha who was transplanted to Clare.