The McCURDY name is Scottish, possibly arising from a MaKurerdy family or “Sept” living from early times on the Isle of Bute in the Firth of Clyde off the Scottish coast. The name changed over the centuries from the Gallic MaKuererdy to MacKirdy eventually taking on the Anglicized McCurdy spelling in Co Antrim. According to legend the McCurdys of County Antrim descend from 5 MacKirdy brothers who left the Isle of Bute in 1666 in a rowing boat to escape religious persecution, and landed on the coast of Co Antrim near Ballintoy. A number of researchers claim to have traced their origins to this family & back to the 1400s to a Clan Chief called Gilkrist McKuererdy.
The harbour at Ballintoy
Unfortunately documentary evidence is scarce and the Ballintoy Parish Registers for the 18th Century have been destroyed in the Dublin Records Office fire in 1922, consequently the possibility of establishing any links to earlier times would seem extremely remote. Our first recorded McCurdy is Daniel McCurdy born about 1812 who was a farmer in Lemenagh Ballintoy. His son Henry McCurdy born 1854 is my great grandfather. He married Annie Hutcheson in 1882 and they settled in Ballycastle having 14 children. The family eventually moved to Belfast. They lived at Glencollyer Street until the house was bombed in the war, after that Henry & his wife Annie lived with their daughter Ethel.
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