Recorded in the spellings of McCory, McCorry, McCurrie and McCurry,as well as Cory, Corry, Currie and Curry, this interesting surname is Irish. It is an anglicized form of the Gaelic Mac Gothraidh, composed of the elements "mac" meaning son of plus "Gothraidh", the Irish form of the male given name Godfrey; hence "son of Godfrey". Godfrey derives from the Old German "Guda" meaning god plus "frithu" peace. In Ireland the surname in iots many spellings is much more numerous in Ulster than elsewhere. The majority descended from a sept located in the area of the counties Tyrone and Fermanagh. Recordings of the surname from the Irish church registers include; Mary, the daughter of Daniel and Mary McCory, who was christened on November 18th 1829, at Kilrea, Londonderry; on September 2nd 1837, whilst Frederick, the son of Edward and Elizabeth McCorry, was christened at Moira, Co. Down on March 6th 1845. Henry McCurry and his wife Mary were passengers on the ship Ward-Chipman of Liverpool, which left that port on August 8th 1846, bound for New York. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Teag gilla Corr. This was dated 1186, in the Annals of Ulster, during the reign of Rory O'Connor, the High King of Ireland, 1166 - 1198. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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