Origins of the Coffey Family

The surname Coffey or Coffee is thought to have come from the old Irish surname O Cobhthaigh, pronounced O Coffee, which is derived from the Irish word for victorious: cobhtach. Their family origins are referred to in John O'Hart's Irish Pedigrees and according to him originated from County Cork.

Our earliest known Coffey ancestor is Francis Coffey who died in 1844 and was born around 1790. He was a land surveyor and the Coffeys are said to have been heridatory surveyors for the McCarthy Mors, the Irish Kings of Desmond. The Coffeys allegedly lost their heridatory lands in Kerry during the Cromwellian settlement of Ireland in the 17th century. A branch of the family then went to Clare and it is from this branch that our family is thought to descend. I have been sent some family notes from another researcher that are based on a book by Alfred Coffey of New Zealand. In this book he says that Francis' father was John Coffey, a civil engineer and his mother was E O'Donnell from Mayo, who died in Liscannor in 1874 at the age of 103. I plan to check this and the other notes in official records. John's father may have been John Coffey of Newmarkey on Fergus. As this research is unsubstantiated I have not put it into the family tree yet.