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MCNAB Family History

This ancient and historic surname is of Scottish origin, although popular in parts of Ireland. It derives from Mac an Abbadh, meaning the son of the abbot! The early chiefs were the lay abbots of the monastery of Glen Dochart, a valley which joins Glen Lochay at the head of Loch Tay, north-west of Edinburgh. In the early church, the abbot of a monastery usually belonged to a leading family of the tribe or "tuath", the office being hereditary to that family. As the the monastery grew rich, the energies of the abbot became more temporal than spiritual, and the abbot a man about town, who took to rearing families and delegating authority to a monk or cleric...