McAtamney Family Genealogy

We've set up this web space to share our research into and speculation about the McAtamney families of Lurgan and its surrounding Townlands in Co. Armagh, Ireland.

The oldest records for the area find the family in Aghacommon Townland, in Seagoe Parish, which lies to the west of Lurgan.

As time went on, the family spread to Kilvergan, Ballynamoney and Ballynacor Townlands in Seagoe Parish, to Montiaghs and Tartaraghan Parishes, and to the towns of Lurgan in Shankill Parish, and Portadown in Drumcree Parish.

From northern Armagh, the family ventured farther afield to Belfast, and from Ireland to Scotland, England, Australia, America, Canada, South Africa, Switzerland and, no doubt, elsewhere.

The McAtamney surname is an anglicisation of Mac an Tiompánaigh, which means 'son of the tympanist' or 'son of the drummer'. It is said to have originated in counties Donegal and Tyrone, to the west of Armagh, and was later common in county Down, to the east.

The name has been anglicised into a great number of other surnames, including McTamney, Timpany, Timony, Tamney, Tenpenny, and throughout the records, it is frequently misspelled.

For consistency, we tend to use the spelling McAtamney on this site, but include other spellings where appropriate.

Freeholders’ Registers of land tenancy, which are available for the years from 1813 to 1826, tell us that Felix and William McAtamney held leases in Aghacommon.

St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic church, which was constructed in Aghacommon from 1829 to 1832 following Catholic Emancipation, kept registers from 1836 onward to record baptisms, marriages, and burials.

Those records have allowed us to trace the McAtamney name back to the families that lived in Aghacommon prior to the construction of the parish church, including:

• William, born about 1816, who married Isabella Carvill in 1840.
• Eugene, born about 1818, who married Berry Hennan before 1836.
• John, born about 1819, who married Sally Hendran in 1840.

In 1864, civil registration was introduced in Ireland. The birth, marriage and death records allow us to trace the McAtamney name into the modern era.

Many of these records are available on the Internet, which has helped us connect with distant cousins, and work to unravel the history of the McAtamney families of Lurgan.