Irish origins of the Harsha family
For those of you who are interested in the Irish origins of the Harsha family, the book,
"AN ANCIENT IRISH PARISH, PAST AND PRESENT, BEING THE PARISH OF DONAGHMORE, COUNTY DOWN"
by J. DAVISON COWAN (1914) is online at
www.archive.org/stream/ancientirishpari00cowarich.
From page 317:
The first settlers in Ireland were, doubtless,
Joseph Harshaw and his brother, Andrew, of Bally-
nafoy, in the parish of Annaclone, who settled there
towards the close of the seventeenth century. Joseph
Harshaw's will was proved in 1735, he having died
when doubtless he was an old man. There is, besides,
a Harshaw tradition to the effect that the family
came over to Ireland with King William III, Prince
of Orange, in 1690, and hence it was long customary
for the several members of the clan to wear sprays
of the orange lily each succeeding 1st of July. In all
probability this tradition is founded on fact, and
hence we may conclude that the brothers, Joseph
and Andrew, settled at Ballynafoy about 1690.
From page 328:
It may be noted that some of the family, resident
in the States, have adopted a comparatively modern
spelling of the name, viz. ‘ Harsha ' — instead of
Harshaw, the original orthography. But this is easily
accounted for, owing to the fact that frequently
surnames come to be spelt — even in baptismal registers
and official document s — as they are locally pronounced.
In Donaghmore the people generally pronounce the name
as though it were ‘ Harsha' and not Harshaw.