Irish surname v county

[Kilts_Knave]

Recently I was searching for the Jones surname in respect to Irish County. (My grandmother knows virtually nothing about her Irish grandfather!) I came across this rootsweb page:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~irlkik/ihm/cntynam2.htm
[Remove the (cntynam2.htm) for even cooler stuff...]
Just curious as to the veracity of this information. Does anyone know otherwise? Any Joneses out there? Says we're from Wicklow county (originally, exclusively); hmmm... sounds rather convenient to me. Just because it is on the Internet does not make it true.

[macwilkin]

Recently I was searching for the Jones surname in respect to Irish County. (My grandmother knows virtually nothing about her Irish grandfather!) I came across this rootsweb page:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~irlkik/ihm/cntynam2.htm
[Remove the (cntynam2.htm) for even cooler stuff...]
Just curious as to the veracity of this information. Does anyone know otherwise? Any Joneses out there? Says we're from Wicklow county (originally, exclusively); hmmm... sounds rather convenient to me. Just because it is on the Internet does not make it true.

You hit the nail on the head with your last sentence, especially when it comes to genealogy: just because it is on the Internet does not make it true. Since you are dealing with a very common surname in the British Isles (Jones), really the only way to truly determine where your group of Joneses comes from is through individual research on your family tree.

Your local genealogical/historical society is a great place to start -- they may have their own research facility, or the local public library -- and don't forget the local LDS church for their family research centers -- the Mormons research mormons & non-mormons alike.

Good luck!

Todd

[Jimmy Carbomb]

Those sites are actually pretty "generic" with the locations, but they're a GREAT place to start. I was researching the Delaney (O Dubhshlaine) name, and started in Kilkenny (as the internet proposed). Without that starting point, I never would have been able to track the Catholic Church records and grave markers to find the actual base in Laois. It saved me how many locations of searching???!!!!;)

[Colin]

Those sites are actually pretty "generic" with the locations, but they're a GREAT place to start. I was researching the Delaney (O Dubhshlaine) name, and started in Kilkenny (as the internet proposed).

That's funny Jimmy, 'cause everytime I get interested in looking up family history, I start with a Kilkenny

[jfellrath]

That's funny Jimmy, 'cause everytime I get interested in looking up family history, I start with a Kilkenny

Usually discovering my family history drives me TO a Kilkenny, or Guinness, or Bunnahabhain, or whatever. ;)

[Jimmy Carbomb]

That's funny Jimmy, 'cause everytime I get interested in looking up family history, I start with a Kilkenny

If someone didn't know the topography of Ireland, they would think that Kilkenny was some dried-up lake bed that was hard for migrants to escape... so everyone just settled there!

My wife's maiden name is Delaney, so I was doing "the search" for the family. Good night nurse, there are a LOAD of Delaneys in Ireland!!! It was fun tracking the "right ones".

Fortunately for me, my family history is very well spelled out in some old books and journals, so I have known all along that Armagh is "home base". That goes back a LONG time. In fact, family still resides there in droves. When I plugged-in the family name with "Ireland", it went straight to the correct church. I guess we made just enough trouble over there to be tracked.;)

[Mr. Kilt]

Interesting site! I read through all the counties and couldn't find my surname (Gingles) listed. I know that my grandfather immigrated to Canada in 1913 from Larne, Co. Antrim. Unfortunately I have no idea if the family originally came from there. Using the net to try to search has been disappointing.

[GMan]

I admit that I was caught up in the web of information. This is just one great source of knowledge amongst many. I really appreciated the other stuff (maps and history)

[Big Paul]

You may try http://genforum.genealogy.com/

You may find long lost relatives that you didn't even know you had... I did!

[Rufus]

Great, now I'm going to start devoting all of my free time to genealogy again. Just when I thought I'd kicked this habit! ;) If you need me, I'll be in the Genealogy Forums at genealogy.com

Here's an interesting page of ancient Irish surnames, and their modernized versions from the Ulster Ancestry website. I found my family's surname on it, and the ancient version it possibly came from (though I'm trying to do some research to make certain.)