Our Family's Journey
We're so pleased you dropped in to visit our site. It is our hope that these records will be cherished, added to and yes, corrected, down through time. Ancestry is not a straight line, check the family name cloud at the bottom of this page. All these families were needed to get to this page.
Thank you for visiting our site. This site is truly a work of love and dedication in order to tell the story of us and our ancestors. If you have something to add, please let us know. The more we can share with others the more we receive in return. Thank you again!
The surname O’Kane is of ancient Irish origin, derived from the Gaelic name Ó Catháin, meaning “descendant of Cathán.” The personal name Cathán comes from "cath", the Irish word for “battle,” suggesting a warrior ancestry. The O’Kanes were a powerful and influential family in Ulster, particularly in County Derry (Londonderry), where they held significant lands and authority for centuries.
During the medieval period, the O’Kanes were lords of a large territory in what is now the barony of Keenaght, with their stronghold near Limavady. They were closely allied with the O’Neill dynasty, one of the most dominant Gaelic families in Ireland, and often acted as their military supporters. The clan played a prominent role in resisting English expansion and colonization in Ulster, but like many Gaelic noble families, their power waned after the defeat of the Irish chieftains in the early 17th century and the subsequent Plantation of Ulster.
The name has since spread widely across Ireland and the Irish diaspora, particularly to Scotland, North America, and Australia. Variants of the surname include Kane, Keane, and O’Keane. Today, the O’Kane name remains strongly associated with its Ulster roots and Ireland’s rich Gaelic heritage.
The surname Savoie has its origins in the historical region of Savoy (French: Savoie), an alpine territory straddling modern southeastern France, Switzerland, and northwestern Italy. The name itself is toponymic, meaning it was originally used to identify people who came from or were associated with this region. The word “Savoy” is thought to derive from the Latin Sapaudia or Sabaudia, meaning “land of fir trees.”
Savoy was a strategically important area in medieval Europe, ruled for centuries by the House of Savoy, one of the oldest royal dynasties in the world. Families bearing the surname Savoie may have been retainers, settlers, or subjects linked to this powerful duchy. As populations migrated, the name spread beyond the Alps, particularly into France and French-speaking regions.
With the French colonization of North America in the 17th and 18th centuries, bearers of the surname Savoie established themselves in Québec, Acadia (modern Nova Scotia and New Brunswick), and later in Louisiana, where the name became well known among the Cajun community. Today, Savoie is a common French-Canadian surname and remains a marker of both Old World alpine roots and New World resilience. It symbolizes heritage tied to both European nobility and Acadian endurance.
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The bones here are bones of my bone and flesh of my flesh. It goes to doing something about it. It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able to accomplish. How they contributed to what we are today. It goes to respecting their hardships and losses, their never giving in or giving up, their resoluteness to go on and build a life for their family. It goes to deep pride that the fathers fought and some died to make and keep us a nation. It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us. It is of equal pride and love that our mothers struggled to give us birth, without them we could not exist, and so we love each one, as far back as we can reach. That we might be born who we are. That we might remember them. So we do. With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence, because we are they and they are the sum of who we are. So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my family. It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer the call and take my place in the long line of family storytellers. That is why I do my family genealogy, and that is what calls those young and old to step up and restore the memory or greet those who we had never known before. 'It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us. It is of equal pride and love that our mothers struggled to give us birth, without them we could not exist, and so we love each one, as far back as we can reach. That we might be born who we are. That we might remember them. So we do. With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence, because we are they and they are the sum of who we are. So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my family. It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer the call and take my place in the long line of family storytellers. That is why I do my family genealogy, and that is what calls those young and old to step up and restore the memory or greet those who we had never known before.' by Della M. Cummings Wright; Rewritten by her granddaughter Dell Jo Ann McGinnis Johnson; Edited and Reworded by Tom Dunn, 1943.
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