McCullough Geneology

My Immediate Family

My side of the McCullough family comes from Indiana. My grandmother's ancestors came from England, Ireland, and Scotland (Tanner (who came to the U.S. in the 1600's), Lanegin (from Ireland) and McKenzie (from Scotland). Some others in our family did some family tree searching and found that the earliest McCullough they could trace was a John McCullough, who fought in the United States Revolutionary War. All that means that he came to the U.S. before the 1800's.

In May/June 1998, my wife, daughter, and I took a trip to Ireland and Scotland to do the "Roots" thing. Since we did not know exactlly where the first McCullough in our side of the family came from, we looked at both countries! An interesting occurance happened when my wife called up to a bed and breakfast place in Ireland before we went. My wife told me that the person on the other end of the line there in Ireland had no trouble at all pronouncing and spelling our name! (I'm sure that that experience is shared by a lot of people who go back to the "old" country where their names are more common). Anyway, I have two sections here. The Irish one is from a family name history I got from "The Historical Research Center" at Bunratty Castle in Ireland. The Scotland one I put together from multiple sources.
 

Ireland

There are two origins for the Irish surname McCullough. The majority of those who bear the name descend from the sept of Mac Cu Uladh or Mac Con Uladh. This this Irish surname is an Anglicized form of the names Mac Cu Uladh or Mac Con Uladh, both forms being used in Irish and both signifying "son of the hound of Ulster". The Gaelic form of the name has also been Anglicized as Mac Cullach and Mac Culloch. The majority of bearers of this name are to found in Ulster, in particular in counties Antrim, Down, and Tyrone. One of the earliest records of the name is a reference to one Seamus Mac Con Uladh who was killed in Dunbo in 1532. The Composition Book of Connacht (1585) records one Rory Mac Uladh Mac Cullogh of Co. Sligo.

In some instances, the McCulloughs of Ireland may be of Scots Gaelic origin, being descendants of Scottish McCulloughs who settled in Ireland in the seventeenth century. In fact, they settled in Ulster which has of course led to some confusion as to the origins of the name in that province. The Scottish MacCulloughs derive their name from the Gaelic word "culach", meaning a boar. The earliest record of the surname in Scotland dates to the fourteenth century.

The armorial is ermine fretty gules and looks like red and white cross hatch with little somethings in the white squares. The crest is a hand throwing a dart proper and the motto is "Vi et animo" (By strength and courage)

Scotland

The variations of the name McCullough in Scotland were pretty much what we found in Ireland. The first McCullough listed, it turns out, was the King of Scotland right after MacBeth!! (Of course, he only lasted six months, but you can't have everything.) The most common spelling of McCullough in Scotland was MacCulloch. It seems that the MacCullochs were spread out all over the place. They are listed as septs to the clans of MacDougall, Ross, Munroe, and Gunn, as well as living in Galloway. If you look at a map of Scotland you will see that these clans are roughly spread along the "Great Rift" going from the Irish Sea, through Loch Ness and Inverness to the North Sea. Galloway, of course is in southern Scotland. The coat of arms is McCullough of Myerton (given above) which is in Galloway).

If you want a McCullough badge it will be the MacCulloch of Myerton one. If you want a McCullough tartan, though, you have a choice of MacDougall, Ross, Munroe, Gunn, Galloway, or the Irish county tartans for Antrim, Down, or Tyrone. That is, of course, unless you know exactly where your McCullough ancestor came from. Here is a picture me in kilt outfit that I got in Stirling Scotland at the House of Henderson. The tartan is Ross Hunting Muted. My kilt has about 7 1/2 yards of material in it.

Since I originally wrote this, I put on a fair amount of weight and my kilt no longer fit!  So there was nothing to do except to make my own.
I liked it so well that I kept on making them, and then started my own kiltmaking business.   I call it McCullough Highlands.
I put a little more definition to the above genealogy on the celtickilts.com site from some books that I found.  There are a number of
other McCullough/McCulloch sites around.  Here is a new site that has a number links to these sites,  http://www.mccolloch.com.
 

Me with Scottish attire

 Here is another picture with the family (among the ones I took for our Christmas picture) with an example of a Scottish Claymore. This one is fairly heavy and is more for display than for use.

Family with tartan