The Clan/Sept History

The Irish surname Tully begins was originally the Gaelic MacTuile, O Maoltuile,
or Mac Maoltuile. "tuile" means "flood," and the names Tully and Flood were at
one time interchangeable in Ireland. However, some of the Gaelic names that have
become "flood" may have been mistranslations, and that contained the Gaelic
"toile," meaning "toil," or "will."

Those scribes in Ireland during the Middle Ages recorded names as they sounded
simply because their bearers were illiterate. Consequently, in this era many
people were recorded under different spellings each time their name was written
Down. Research on the Tully family name revealed numerous spelling variations,
including Flood, Floyd, Floode, Floyde, Tully, MacTully,Talley, Tally and many
more.
First found in Connacht, where they could be found since ancient times, and were
hereditary physicians to the O'Connors of Galway.
During the 19th century thousands of impoverished Irish Families made the long
journey to British North America and the United States. These people were
leaving a land that had become beset with poverty, lack of opportunity, and
hunger. In North America, they hoped to find land, work, and political and
religious freedoms. Although the majority of the immigrants that survived the
long sea passage did make these discoveries, it was not without much
preseverence and hard work: by the mid-19th century land suitable for
agriculture was short supply, especially in British North America, in the east;
the work available was generally low paying and physically taxing construction
or factory work; and the English stereotypes concerning the Irish, although less
frequent and vehement, were, nevertheless, present in the land of freedom,
liberty, and equality for all men. The largest influx of Irish settlers occurred
with Great Potato Famine during the late 1840s. Research into passenger and
immigration lists has brought forth evidence of the early members of the Tully
family in North America: Edmund Flood who landed in Massachusetts in 1620; David
Flood settled in Virginia in 1637; followed by Abraham Flood 1650; John in 1652;
Arthur Floyd settled in Virginia in 1647.

Motto Translated: Strength united is the more powerful.