The Clan's Religious division

                                Father Cathaoir O'Duibhdhiorma, 1935 to 2008

The above photo is of the late Catholic priest Father Charles McDermott of the Diocese of Sacramento, California. He was a highly respected cleric who was considered an authority on morality and church law. He was born in the city of Derry (Londonderry), Ireland, a few miles south of Inishowen. To his fellow Irish Catholic priests, he was known as Cathaoir O'Duibhdhiorma. His Irish and Anglicized dual surnames and place of birth and religion are revealing in regard to the history of the clan that produced descendants who became Protestants and used DeArmond surname variants, and those who remained Catholic and used the surname McDermott or McDearmond and other familiar Irish Catholic surnames such as Byrne, Bellew and Lennon.

Ysearch.org Y DNA 37 marker STR results for men who have tested positive for SNP FGC4113, the Y DNA terminal SNP marker for the clan of O'Duibhdhiorma. Click on chart to enlarge.

Examining the Y DNA Short Tandem Repeat chart above reveals the distinctive divide among descendants of the clan of O'Duibhdhiorma between Catholic and Protestant. The four markers designated with an asterisk denote the descendants whose ancestors had converted originally to the Presbyterian religion. 7ZKDS McDearmond did not test for FGC4113 and there is little information about his immigrant ancestor. His STR results unmistakably place him among the Connachta Catholics (green) of FGC4113. Bellew did not transfer his results to Ysearch.org, but he closely matches McDermott. His ancestor was from Galway, a few miles south of Sligo, and his surname was undoubtedly originally O'Duibhdhiorma/McDermott. His Bellew surname was obviously borrowed from the esteemed Catholic Anglo/Norman family (Belleau) of Mount Bellew in Galway.

Following the failed mid 17th century revolt of the Irish against British rule, perhaps a third of the Catholics of Ireland were forcibly removed to Connachta Province or even further south. The Irish phrase to "To Hell or Connaught" originates from this period. This early forced refugee migration likely accounts for Catholics McDermott and Bellew being from Counties Sligo and Galway. A point of confusion is that County Roscommon in Connachta Province was the home of the large MacDiarmada clans who also used McDermott. This has led to many Catholic descendants with a McDermott or other common Irish surnames mistakenly assuming the wrong source for their paternal ancestry.

17th century cannon on the old walls of Londonderry suggesting how much the native Irish were once considered a threat to the city's survival. The hills of Inishowen are to the north on the horizon. O'Duibhdhiorma history is linked to the city through early warfare, migration, emigration, employment and political/religious/cultural conflict.

According to Brian Mitchell (2010), during the mid 19th century, several descendants of Catholic (and Presbyterian?) O'Duibhdhiorma migrated from eastern Inishowen and environs to Londonderry to work in shirt making factories and the shipyards. Many began using the surname McDermott which today is one of the more common names in Derry.

John O'Donovan (1861) wrote "O'Duibhdhiorma is still numerous in Inishowen, but corruptly anglicized to Diarmid and sometimes rarely to MacDermott, though always pronounced O'Duibhdhiorma by the natives when speaking Irish."  O'Donovan was collectively using the Gaelic Diarmid for Anglicized spellings of Dyermott, Diermond, Dermond and Dermott which were usually substituted in Inishowen and Ulster for O'Duibhdhiorma. His mention that McDermot was only used rarely likely reflects the period prior to industrialization in Londonderry. In 1878, Father James O'Laverty wrote "O'Duibhdhiarma (sic), The name is still numerous in Inishowen and in the neighborhood of Derry where it is anglicized to Dooyearma and changed into MacDermot". O'Laverty's comment reflects the time period after the full swing to industrialization in the city of LondonDerry.

In 1973 Brian Bonner, writing about Inishowen, said that O'Duibhdhiorma was rather illogically changed to McDermott, but that the older folks of Inishowen pronounced the surname, "Dee-Erma" which was a more recent Gaelic rendering of the older Anglicized transliteration Dooyearma. A mid 19th century baptism of a Peter Dyermott was recorded in the Moville Parish Catholic church of Inishowen, illustrating how written records were kept using only the substituted Anglicized variants of Irish given name Diarmuid.

The Protestant split from the clan.

Judging from the surviving records of the period during the 17th century forced removals to Connaught (Connacht), less than half of the O'Duibhdhiorma remained in Inishowen afterwards. I would surmise this is reflected in the Y DNA results shown above. About 1725, the Presbyterian Ulster Scots began a 50 year long mass migration to North America leaving behind vacant tenant farming positions that were filled by native Irish provided they convert to a Protestant religion which in most cases was Presbyterian. They became integrated among the Ulster Scots and became part of their migration also. A few Protestant converted O'Duibhdhiorma remained in Ulster or migrated to Scotland, England and then on to North America and Oceana. They can be found today in the environs of Belfast with surnames like Deyermond. Protestant O'Duibhdhiorma can also be found in mid 19th Glasgow using McDermid for a surname and having American, Canadian and Australian descendants test positive for Y DNA SNP FGC4113 or have autosomal DNA matches to DeArmond descendants. 

Note from his book by Father Patrick Woulfe in 1906. His informant was likely to have been a Catholic priest in Belfast who was amused by this attempt to change a native Irish surname into various pseudo Protestant French Huguenot surnames. The fashion actually began in America following the celebrated return tour of America by the famed Marquis de Lafayette in 1824-5.

Very little is known about the Protestant converted O'Duibhdhiorma before their18th century emigration among the Ulster Scots to America, since nearly all writings about the O'Duibhdhiorma in Ireland were by native Irish Catholics, who were often priests who had no interest in Protestants. Except for Father Patrick Woulfe (1906) who noted the "assimilation" of pseudo "French" spellings for O'Duibhdhiorma substitutions (see above).

Perhaps DeArmond surname variant researchers in the future will have a more substantial data base of Y DNA results to work with and be able to determine ports of departure, either Londonderry or Belfast. Contrary to widespread belief, I strongly suspect the overwhelming majority of Protestant immigrant surname ancestors were from County Donegal and sailed from Londonderry, as opposed to Roscoe C. "d'Armand" who would have most of his immigrant lines be from County Down and embark from Belfast or else from England where their noble French surname had not been "corrupted" by Irish influence. My belief stems from a search of the 1796 Flax Growers bounty lists for County Down that reveal not a single possible surname variant of DeArmond, whereas the surname is abundantly found in County Donegal. This and a lack of any other record in Counties Antrim (Lisburn) and Down before 1800 suggest the surname was unknown there until sometime in the 19th century.

Probable migration and emigration routes and time periods for O'Duibhdhiorma clan Catholics and Protestants. These represent the primary movements of male line clan descendants. Isolated examples of Y DNA test results show that individual clan descendant men carried their Y chromosome to other countries of the world as well. The Catholics in particular often borrowed surnames not recognizable as specific to the clan.

Etymology of O'Duibhdhiorma

Duibh Dhiorma first appears in the recorded Irish monastery annals (later referred to as The Four Masters) for the year 1043 A.D., when a chieftain of the clan died. The monastery genealogies of the Northern Ui Neill Irish clans suggest the personal name and clan existed much further back into the first millennium as we trace the paternal line Y chromosome DNA to 5th century High King of Ireland, Niall Noigiallach. His son Eoghain (Owen), was the male progenitor of the large interrelated group of ruling clans of Ulster known as the Cenel Eoghain or Race of Owen, which included the clan of Duibhdhiorma.

Traditional genealogy of O'Duibhdhiorma (simplified version) showing descent from Prince Eoghain of the Northern Ui Neill. Y chromosome DNA test results of several DeArmond surname variant men compared with surnames from other clans of the Northern Ui Neill and Cenel Eoghain, confirm the essence of the genealogies.

Referring to the image at beginning of the post, the Old Irish Seanchlo font or script was a highly stylized Irish monastery adaptation of the Roman alphabet. The dots or sometimes small circles indicate the consonant is spoken with a lenition or aspiration (softened exhale) which changes the phonetic sound recognition differently than the usual phonetic rendering of the consonant. Because English alphabet script does not allow for the dotted consonant, the accepted manner became to place a letter h after the consonant that is meant to be lenited.

A dotted letter "b" becomes a short v and the dotted letter "d" becomes a short y. This produces "Doove Yiorma". When the two words were spoken together as a surname, there was an elision or dropping of the "ve" and the pronunciation becomes "Doo-Year-ma". Dooyearma is how the early Anglo/Irish recording officials first transliterated or Anglicized Duibhdhiorma. On occasion "Dooyiorma" or even "Dughierma" spellings were used. The pronunciations were all similar.

Gaelic Duibh is an intensive adjective meaning very black (hair color). Dubh with the letter "i" missing, meaning merely dark hair and is commonly found in many Irish and Scottish Gaelic surnames such as in Dugh-again or Dugan. D(h)iorma means a member of an armed group of men.

Properly speaking, Ua Duibhdhiorma is the surname of an individual male descendant or clan member. Although only occasionally found, Ui Duibhdhiormaigh is the name of the clan itself. The patronymic prefix Ua is pronounced O' as in O'Keefe. Ui is the patronymic of a clan or clan group as in Ui Neill, pronounced "Eee Neal". Ua has long since fallen out of use in favor of the Anglicized O'. Ui is still used for larger clan groups. A single clan or sept is generally referred to today by the singular manner such as O'Duibhdhiorma. The older genealogies translated from Seanchlo Gaelic into English often don't show that a consonant is lenited. Therefore you will find Duv Dirma, which is actually Duibh Dhiorma.

In various other posts of my blog, I detail how O'Duibhdhiorma over time became DeArmond, McDermott, DeYarman and an untold number of other variants.

DeArment of western Pennsylvania

View of Presque Isle and Erie, PA. The sketched map was drawn by a soldier stationed there during the war of 1812. The war and location were part of the backdrop of DeArment surname history.

This post discusses points of interest concerning the surname variant spelled as Dearment or  DeArment. The variant was designated by Roscoe Carlisle d'Armand in his book "DeArmond Families of America"(1954) as line F, which he listed as John DeArment of Westmoreland County, PA. The "Oxford Dictionary of American Surnames" notes: "Dearment, a variant of Irish Dearmond". Roscoe noted that several instances of the surname spelling occurred in western Pennsylvania (during the early part of the 19th century), that he assumed were closely related, but was unable to further trace. The surname variant is only a small fraction as numerous as DeArmond, but is still widespread in North America.

John Diermond of Fersalmore?

Roscoe arbitrarily determined the progenitor of some of his immigrant lines to be John Diermond, who was recorded on the 1766 List of Protestant householders of Fersalmore, Leck Parish, County Donegal, Ireland. The only written source that he referred to in his book for his paternity determinations is a reference on page 302 where he writes "John DeArment, son of John Diermond of Fersalmore, Parish of Leck, County Donegal, North Ireland." Then on the bottom of the page, he includes a footnote #1: "From a pencil notation on the flyleaf of the DeArment-Minnis Family reunion Register, Crawford County, Penna., 1901-1904". It apparently was not known as to when and who penciled the note, but there is an obvious clue to what their source of information was. Whoever wrote the flyleaf notation, was only familiar with the 1766 census misspelled version of the place name and did not know the name is spelled in Donegal as Farsetmore (Gaelic: Fearsaid mhor), a townland of 125 acres and site of the last large scale battle (1567) between the clan families of Ulster (and Ireland) before total British hegemony over the entire Isle in 1603.

The register notation was highly likely to have been merely an uninformed supposition by a more recent amateur family genealogist who didn't realize, that except for tiny Leck Parish, all 1766 census records for Donegal and Ulster had been destroyed in a 1922 Dublin insurrection fire. Certainly, at that time there were many other clan paternal surname line descendants in Donegal and other counties of Ulster for whom no written record survived, whom could have just as well have been the progenitors of the various immigrant lines. Note that on the 1796 Flax growers bounty lists for Donegal there were numerous anglicized surname variants suggesting many likely family choices to chose from for possible DeArmond/DeArment variant O'Duibhdhiorma ancestors.

 John Cook Dearment of Crawford County, Pennsylvania

Although I know of other instances of use of the Dearment spelling by families in Pennsylvania descended from different ancestors, the primary source of the surname spelling derives from a John Cook DeArment of Crawford County, Pennsylvania who was born in Ireland about 1780. Recently I received from a patrilineal surname descendant of his, copies of three pages of the opening of a booklet about a Moses Logan, authored by his grandson Milton Logan in 1926.

                          Moses Logan story first three pages. Click on image to enlarge.

Fundamentally, the story relates oral tradition supposedly told to Milton by his grandfather about his experiences during his youth in Donegal and later his activity in the year prior to the failed 1798 Irish Rebellion against the Anglican English by both Presbyterian Ulster Scots and native Catholic Irish, referred to as the "the United Irish". The story included involvement in the murder of a "British officer, Captain" Hamilton along with the unintended shooting death of a minister's wife.

The Logan story details how Moses fled from arrest and hanging, by stowing away aboard a ship bound for New York from which he had further hair raising experiences. Finally in New York harbor, his "mate" John Dearment is mentioned, without giving any detail as to how their friendship came to be. Eventually the two journey together to Crawford County, Pennsylvania where they finally settle. My personal assessment of the story is that there may be some fictional elaboration added by either Moses or Milton, but on the whole, the story line is historically and location wise specifically correct and I would accept the overall timeline and particulars as essentially accurate. Fundamental elements of the story are supported by a DeArment family source entirely unrelated to the Logan version.

 

Screenshots from a YouTube video about the hauntings of Sharon Rectory. The original stone walled Rectory is in the distant right of the building photo. The right photo purports to show the ghost of the murdered wife.

Also supporting the story is the historical record of the murder victim in Donegal. He was in fact William Hamilton a noted minister and magistrate who was also esteemed for his work in various scientific pursuits. Although a descendant of Presbyterian Ulster Scots himself, he was widely known for his British and Anglican sympathies. This put him at risk from the local population of  Presbyterians and Catholics, many of whom were members of the United Irish and bitterly resented the harsh discrimination practices of the British Anglicans against them. His own parish was near Lough Swilly. While traveling by boat on the Lough, he took refuge ashore in another pastor's rectory where his presence became known and was converged upon by an angry mob intent on taking his life which they succeeded in doing, and by unintentional mistake, also the resident pastor's wife.

The 1796 Flax Growers list for Donegal (shown above) show several men having Logan and anglicized Duibhdhiorma surnames living within a ten mile distance of the Sharon Rectory where the murders occurred (see map shown below). Only circumstantial timing and association evidence suggests that John Cook Dearment and/or my own ancestor William Dearment were present and may have took part in Hamilton's murder. Even mild crowd excitement can quickly escalate into mob violence, and participation can stir ordinarily peaceful persons to do regrettable acts. Several different first hand and second hand accounts of the murder on 2 March, 1797 vary in details but concur basically with the Logan version. Sharon Rectory where the murders took place is today known as one of Ireland's infamous haunted houses where the ghost of the murdered wife reputedly still appears.

Evidently the informant(s) from the Crawford County descendants of John Cook DeArment contacted by Roscoe were not aware of the Logan paper, as he did not mention the story and has John Cook DeArment accompany his parents from Donegal, Ireland as a small child long before 1798. I took keen interest in this story because my own immigrant ancestor William Dearment likely left Ireland also within a similar time frame.

1850 U.S. Census, Crawford County, PA, Greenwood TWP, John D Armah Sr. and his son also named John D Armah.

In Roscoe's book on page 304, footnote #2, in which he quotes the 1850 U.S. census for the entry of John D Armah and family of Crawford County, PA., Roscoe correctly identifies this entry as John Cook DeArment, son of John DeArment, line F.  The spelling of "D Armah" was likely the phonetic interpretation of the census taker upon hearing the family informant use the Gaelic pronunciation of their surname. It appears that he was mistakenly given the impression or himself assumed that the name was of French origin which commonly occurred among Dearmond variants after the celebrated return tour of America by the Marquis de Lafayette in 1825. Only afterwards do pseudo French spellings such as DeArmond or D'Armond begin to be recorded. Previous to 1850, the Crawford County surname was recorded in 1840 as "Dearment". Today, nearly all surname descendants of John D Armah Sr. pronounce and spell their surnames as DeArment.

Section of 1846 published map of Irish surnames and clans from the 11th to the late 16th century by Phillip McDermott M.D. O'Dooyarma insert is from John O'Hart's 1888 book "Irish Pedigrees" page 12 which used the map as a source.

Back in Inishowen in northeast Donegal, when speaking in Gaelic, native Irish pronounced their surname as Dee-Arma or Dee-Erma which had evolved from Doo-Yearma, spelled Dui(bh) Dhiorma in Gaelic. Dearment was just one of many anglicized variants of Irish given name Diarmuid (pronounced Der-mid) or Diarmait (Der-mitt/Der-mott) which Anglo-Irish recording officials in turn used to anglicize Duibhdhiorma.

Just below is a layered composite of several pages of Y DNA matches from my personal account at Family Tree DNA (ftdna.com) that I created to demonstrate the variety of surnames either tested positive or highly probable to be positive for Y DNA SNP marker FGC4113 indicating paternal descent from the Irish clan of O'Duibhdhiorma, which includes a descendant of John Cook DeArment.

William Dearment of Indiana County, PA

My own well documented Irish immigrant ancestor William Dearment most likely emigrated from Clonleigh Parish of County Donegal before 1800. He appears on the 1820 Indiana County, PA, U.S. census above, with an apparent brother or cousin James Derment listed above. James was never again recorded in Indiana County and his fate is unknown to me, although I matched with autosomal DNA along with other distant paternal line cousins to a lady in Texas with a Derment ancestor.. At least two other surname men appear to have lived in Brush Valley (Wheatfield) Township among my ancestor's family during the 19th century who were not William's sons. Perhaps they influenced the extensive family of William's descendants to use today's Deyarmin and lesser known Deyarmie or DeArmey (spelled D'Armee on 1840 census shown below).

Fort Erie and the war of 1812

The history of Erie and Presque Isle during the war of 1812-14 is a harrowing story of dispirited men stationed in a disease infested environment with poor sanitation and food.  Most were not supplied with any weapons, while critical military and naval supplies were withheld and rerouted or transferred to other military facilities by more senior commanders intent to insure their own success. Against these almost insurmountable odds, Oliver Perry was able to organize the building of enough ships in time to take advantage of a respite in the British blockade of Presque Isle. His men were able to perform a herculean task moving ships and cannon across a massive sandbar and into Lake  Erie.  With a trained skeletal backbone of veterans from the famed USS Constitution (Old Ironsides), he then sailed west to Put-In-Bay to blockade and then narrowly but soundly defeat the British fleet on September 10, 1813. Afterwards, he sent the famous message "We have met the enemy and they are ours!".

20th century idealized conception of U.S. warships towing their battered British captives after victory in the Battle of Lake Erie.

Roscoe cited those DeArments of Crawford county who served at Erie and Presque Isle during the War of 1812. One Dearment record Roscoe purposely ignored, was that of my ancestor. Several more listings of earlier spelling versions of the DeArment and DeArmond variant surnames can found in the militia company muster roles of the Pennsylvania Archives collection for the War of 1812. One individual's name, who was drafted into the Huntingdon County military marched to and stationed at Erie under Captain William Morris in the spring of 1813, appears on three different muster role lists for the same company. He was my Irish immigrant 3x great grandfather, William Dearment, for whom I can well document his life and my linage back to him. In mid August of 1813, some event or unwelcome news apparently persuaded several men from the company to desert, including my ancestor. Considering that his wife and numerous children were without his presence and support, no doubt his decision to desert was based on concern for their welfare. My family has a considerable history of honorable wartime naval service and combat, including my own. In the circumstances that my ancestor faced, and considering that four of our recent Presidents chose to avoid Vietnam or military service, I feel his action was understandable.

Photo from my visit to my paternal ancestor's final residence in Indiana County, PA, and two consecutive pages from the Pennsylvania Archives Series showing the Aug 16th, 1813 militia desertion of my 3x great grandfather William Dearment. Click on the image to enlarge.