Recorded in the spellings of McGrotty and Grotty, this is a very rare Irish surname. It appears to found only in the North, and in Counties Derry and Tyrone. It is almost certainly a transposed spelling of some other name. What else though is something of a mystery. Research has suggested that the development is from the ancient Gaelic 'Mag Ratha', meaning the son of the strong man' or similar, or from the same root as the O'Rafferty's which is 'robharta' meaning 'full tide'. When a surname has no obvious original spelling or can be one of many, then it can only be left to conjecture to find the true origin. Unfortunately Irish surnames which ought to be traceable are not, because the IRA in the Civil War of 1922 - 1924, in an act of vandalism of which even this organisation should show some remorse, destroyed the Public Records Office in Dublin, containing the ancient registers of the country, Some of these were so ancient that they dated back to the very beginings of civilisation. In so doing the IRA destroyed the national heritage of Ireland. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately given the circumstances, we have found recordings taken from the shipping lists of the port of New York relative to the Potato Famine of 1846 - 1848. In this we find examples such as Henry McGrotty aged 70, his wife Sarah aged 65, his son Cunningham aged 27 and other sons James and William, all being farmers, who left Ireland on the ship "Fidelia of Liverpool", on February 23rd 1846, and later Rose Grotty, given as being a dressmaker, who left we think, the port of Derry, on the ship Zanoni, on April 20th 1847,

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