The Great Ferriter Family

I am writing somewhat early of a holiday weekend morning, and if a certain fuzziness or haze extends into this essay, that must be the cause. I wish to write about our collective family, in the extended sense. By result of English predations, we have a family with what seems to be an identifiable common root. Not only are we identifiably one family by virtue of our surname, but the genealogy suggests that we extend from an identifiable ancestor, or few ancestors. By virtue of a sustained familial oral tradition, we have maintained a certain sense of identity with that common ancestor, and this has... Read More

When I was growing up being a “Farritor” meant that your family was from Custer County, Nebraska, where story telling remained strong. And where in the 19th century on a lonely homestead on the grassy Plains of North America, Farritors spoke to young ones living in a dugout on the side of a hill of a far away place called Ireland where Ferriters were once great landowners, of a town named Ballyferriter, of the remnants of a Castle sometimes called Sybil’s Castle, and of cove on the sea called Ferriters’ Cove. I took the above photograph last summer, on the former homestead of Robert Garrett... Read More

What follows is a bit of history and a bit of background, for the greater understanding of our collective family. First, please understand that I am not a genealogist. While I have always cherished a love of family history, and an interest in learning more about our past, I have neither the discipline, nor the patience to execute the hard and detailed work necessary in genealogical research. A fair analogy would be found in my love of maps – while not a cartographer, I love to pore over maps, envisioning places and terrain features, and imagining what being there might be like – in similar... Read More

I took this shot 2 years ago, its of An Fear Marbh, which is part of the Blasket Islands. In the past the whole group of Islands was referred to as Ferriter's Islands. From the end of the 13th Century the Ferriter family leased the Islands from the Earls of Desmond, and from Sir Richard Boyle after the dispossession of the Desmond Geraldines at the end of the 16th Century. This shot is taken from the shore at Clogher Beach, on the road from Ballyferriter to Dunquin, a very dangerous tide to swim in because of the strong under-currents. Read More

My name is Morgan Ferriter, I live in Donegal, Ireland. I have had quite a bit of contact with other Ferriters and relatives of Ferriters over the last few years through my own website, so out of curiosity, I checked to see if there was a Ferriter Blog on the web. There wasnt, so I have just created this one so anyone interested can type a few lines and let us know who you are and where you are . I also have a fair amount of history associated with the Ferriter name collected. "All-Ferriter Family Gathering" to be held in Wisconsin, U.S.A., during the... Read More