This interesting surname is of Scottish, Irish and Anglo-Saxon origin, and is an Anglicized form of the Gaelic "MacGille Mhoire" (Scotland), or MacGiolla Mhuire (Ireland), a patronymic from the personal names meaning "servant of (the Virgin) Mary". The surname can also be derived from a locational name, from Gillamoor in Northern Yorkshire, so called from the Olde English pre 7th Century personal names "Getlingas" or "Gyolingas", meaning "people of Getta", or "people of Gyola", and "mor", marsh or moor. Locational surnames were developed when former inhabitants of a place moved to another area, usually to seek work, and were best identified by the name of their birthplace. This surname dates back to the early 13th Century (see below), and Gillechad Gillamor witnessed a grant by Huctred in 1304. In the modern idiom the surname can be found recorded as Gillmor(e), Gilmer, Kolmore and Golour. Recordings from London Church Registers include: the christening of Margaret, daughter of Willim and Elner Gilmer at St. Dunstan's, Stepney on August 15th 1586, and the christening of William, son of Elizabeth Gilmore, on January 14th 1678, at St. Martin in the Fields, Westminster. One Catherine Gilmore, a famine emigrant, aged 25 yrs., sailed from Liverpool aboard the "Montezuma" bound for New York, in May 1846. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Richard Gilemor, which was dated 1228, in the "Feet of Fines of Huntingdonshire", during the reign of King Henry 111, known as "The Frenchman", 1216 - 1272. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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