Welcome To The Huey Group Project! We welcome all people with the Gaelic and English surnames of Echach, Eochaid, Eochu, Huey, Hughey, Hughie, Huie, Hoey, Hooe, Hooi, Hooie, Houie, Houvee, Howay, Howee, Howey, Howie, Howway, Howy, Howye, Hoyie, McHowie, McHowieson, O'Eochaid, O'hEochaidh, O'Howie, Whoye, and any of the other many variations whether on their paternal or maternal side. History The English spelling variations of our surname came from the converting of the spoken Gaelic name. In the Gaelic language, it was spelled O'hEochaidh, Eochaid, Echach, nEchach, O’Eochaid, and other variations. A family might be using one spelling in Ireland, move to Scotland and convert to a different spelling normally used in that locality. Sometimes the census takers and county clerks used the spelling that they might have thought was correct even if a person could spell. In Gaelic, our family name means horse and horseman. Thus, our earlier ancestors were noted horsemen in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and England. As such, it also means that many of the O’hEochaidh men out there scattered through out the Irish, Scottish, Welsh, and English territories could have adopted any of our various spellings of today in the converting to English from their profession of being horsemen. So many folks out there with our various surname spellings may not even be related to each other genetically. So far in our group, most folks with our surname are all descendants of an ancient human named Mr R. According to some estimates, he lived over 25,000 years ago. The time when he lived keeps getting pushed farther back in time as more of the individual and collective DNA gets analyzed and sorted. As his family tree is being unraveled with more DNA testing, we are finding very distant cousins that belong to major branches of the same tree. Our relative connections between these branches to each other can be separated by thousands of years. The R-U106 member branched off some twenty thousand years before the much later Mr CTS4466 who was born around 2,500 years ago. Within the CTS4466 group, also known as the South Irish and the Irish Type II, our individual lines of Huey, Huie, Hughey, Hoey, Hooie, Howay, Howey, and Howie split branched off from each other within the last 1,200 to 500 years or less. Some of my Howie kinfolks changed their family spelling to Hooie around the time of the first world war. Those of us who descended from Mr CTS4466 also have close relatives who chose the Caldwell, Colewell, Coldwell, names. Those names come from cold water wells. When our ancestors first arrived in the British Isles, they likely settled in the once fertile lowlands between Ireland and Scotland. Then as the sea level rose over the last several thousand years, they would have moved inland to the higher ground, still retaining the ease to move from one island to another as local needs warranted the change. This could have been the reason why some of our ancestors became the second of four major groups to invade Ireland. Since cows and horses have been historically moved between the islands in the light weight cowhide boats used by the Scots, it would have been easy to move what ever they needed between Ireland and Scotland. Some of our ancestors may have been the kings of the country of Ulidha which was located in northern Ireland. They were at their height in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Others may have been the chiefs of Cinel Aonghusa in Meath, Ireland. Those might have presided over Tara, Newgrange, Howth, and Knowth. There is an ancient Irish tradition that one of our ancestors named Eochu mac Maireda traveled from Cork across Ireland to a location near today's Belfast. There, his horse urinated to create Loch nEchach. This large lake is now known as Lough Neagh, the largest lake on the island. Some of the early kings of parts of Scotland were named Eochaid. King of the Scots, Eochaidh IV, in about 800 to 814 in the current era, entered into a treaty with Charlemagne, the new king of France. Its purpose was to build a new French educational system. Scotland and probably Ireland, too, sent educators and administrators to develop the new school system throughout France to help consolidate the country. The citizens of Scotland and France enjoyed dual citizenship for centuries. Later treaties enhanced and extended the original agreement including protecting those who moved to France. Many of these educators stayed for years, marrying local people, and having families. Their families enjoyed protective laws enabling them and their estates to be exempt from the death taxes. Over time, descendants would have easily forgotten their ancestors in Scotland and Ireland. Some of those descendants may have emigrated to both Ireland and Scotland in later years. The oldest existing school in Paris is Scots College. The oldest school in Bavaria is the Scots College. In the marshlands of the district of Fenwick, Ayrshire, some of our early ancestors may have settled. One home of the clan has the early date of 1178 occupied by some of our folks. In 1475, the Kintyre peninsula of Argylshire was depopulated by the massacre. Some probably sailed off to Ireland to escape the devastation. New settlers from Ayrshire moved in to live there. After Northern Ireland was cleared of inhabitants, it was opened for settlement and folks were moved from Ayrshire and nearby counties. The idea of this project is to attempt to find common ancestors when the paper trail is unable to do so, regardless of where you think your ancestors came from. The stone circles are in County Antrim. By Ronald R Howie - Deceased Administrator