I have just been reading through all your messages - very interesting. As the Immediate Past
President of the O'Shaughnessy Society, I can tell you that one of our members has found over 200 different spellings of our name.
When I stepped down as
President last year (2008) the Society presented me with a copy of a Hiberian map of Ireland and the name is spelt O Slechtenes! The family was a big family in
Galway, with a
Chapel in the Monastic settlement at Kilmacduagh, Fiddaun
Castle (in ruins) and Ardamullivan
Castle now restored by the
Irish Government. These are all in the vicinity of
Gort, Co
Galway where the next Rally of the Society will be held in September 2010.
There was also a large branch which moved to County
Limerick where my ggrandfather William
Shaughnessy was born in 1834 near Adare, before he came to Australia. The rest of his family went to the US, but I haven't succeeded in finding them all at this time.
Hope you find this info interesting.
Best wishes,
Megan
Shaughnessy McKenzieMount Gambier, South Australia.