According to local tradition in the Boyle (Co. Roscommon) area, the only place in Ireland where the name Mattimoe is established, it is a variant of Milmoe, the homeland of which is in Co. Sligo, a few miles north of Boyle. The evidence available, if not absolutely conclusive, tends to corroborate the oral tradition, which is also supported by the fact that at least one family in the area is known to have used in quite recent times both these surnames concurrently. The extent to which families of the name Mattimoe were found concentrated there in the last century is indicated by the returns in the Tithe Applotment Books of 1835, when there were 13 in the parish of Kilmactranny, 4 in Ballisodare, 2 in Kilronan, 10 in Ardcarne and 14 in Boyle parish. In the 1832 Tithe Applotment Book Mallimo similarly occurs.

In the census of the Elphin diocese made in 1749 (to be published shortly by the Irish Manuscripts Commission), Mattimoes, Millamoes and Mullamoes are found side by side in Boyle, Ardcarne etc.

Col. Cyril M. Mattimoe, who has done much research on these families, has written a useful and interesting account of this, a copy of which can be seen at the National Library, Manuscripts Department.

Mattimoe is not an indigenous English surname and if we accept it as synonymous with Milmoe, as I do, then the correct Irish form of Mattimoe is Ó Maolmhuaidh, usually anglicized Molloy; and according to MacFirbis there was a minor sept so called, a branch of the Silmurray, located in Co. Roscommon. Neither Mattimoe nor Milmoe was included in Matheson's statistical return for 1890 which records all surnames for which five or more births were registered in that year; the birth registrations for the three years 1864-66 were: Mattimoe 13, all at Boyle; Milmoe 12, at Boyle, Swinford and Sligo.

Ó Maolmhuaidh A minor sept of the Silmurray located in Co. Roscommon. Millamoe and Mallimoe are intermediate forms in the transference from Milmoe to Mattimoe. SIF 110