Debra
About the ‘500,000 Global Friends of Wales’ Campaign
Are you one of the 26 million people with family or ancestral connections to Wales? Maybe you were born in Wales, have lived, worked or studied in Wales or you have simply always felt an affinity with Wales and its culture? Perhaps you’re even curious about studying, working or living in Wales? Wales101, in association with Cymru Wales, are building a global network to help Welsh communities, businesses, heritage groups and tourism and culture initiatives to harness their global friends of Wales. Hear more about the campaign from the First Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, in his 2022 Wales101 Saint David’s Day message below. Simply add your email address below to join and we’ll keep you connected to the global Welsh community.
Question of the day
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A message from Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford
Join the ‘500,000 Global Friends of Wales’ Campaign
William Shaw
Dylan Phillips
Roselyne
My ancestors have been traced, through genealogical records, back to John Owens who may have been born around 1700, may have been the ancestor who emigrated from the UK, and lived in Isle of Wight, Virginia, by the time his son, also named John, was born in 1732. From there, the emigrated to eastern NC, Edgecombe County, where some of their dependents still live and own portions of the original land grant.
I'd like to fill in the family story between Anglesley, Wales, and Isle of Wight, Va. ?
Morris
Michael Griffin
Shaun
only found out my family was from Connacht/Mayo when I did an ancestry DNA test.
Since discovered it was my grt grt grandparents in the Famine.
It would explain my grandfather being famous for singing Danny boy, being Catholic and being called Shaun ???????????
pugh
Michael Bennett
My own DNA test (from Ancestry)? shows that I have a relatively large Irish connection, and recently, Ancestry has added that it all comes from Munster.
I would love to see if any Bennett ancestor here is related to me, as it would open up the ability to solve our family mystery.
Thanks in advance!??
Lavinia Lee McKinney
Michael Roach
Hello my name is Michael Roach and I am looking for long
lost family/ cousins in Wales and Ireland that might share the same sur name as
me or have Family relations with the same last name. I currently live in the
Salt Lake Valley of Utah and have been doing some genealogy with my Mom. Our
Family has been living in the America’s since the late 1600’s when Francis
Roach sailed from Bristol England to the Virginia Colonies. We think his father was Nicholas Roach and
they lived in Bristington. My parents did the 23 and me and discovered that
most of our DNA is from Ireland and Wales. So I am curious if we have any long
lost family. Please send me a message or email me at (michaelroach456@gmail.com) . Thanks
for your patients, I hope to hear from someone soon.
David Vaughan
carol
David Owens
Leonard
Brian
Those in Ireland surnamed MARREN and MARRON began their
time in the Emerald Isle with the surname of HARRIS. Their origins were as
Brythonic Celts (a.k.a. Britons), hailing from what is now the English side of
the Welsh border, near the castle town of Chepstow, Wales. They came to
Ireland as paid mercenary archers in the service of the Norman adventurer,
Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, a.k.a. Strongbow.
Like so many of the “Normans” who settled in Ireland in
the late 1100's, the Harris's were not Normans, per se, but English-speaking
Celtic Britons from the Welsh border region, who also likely possessed a share
of Anglo-Saxon ancestry in their DNA background as well. They were
the Celts who in previous centuries were Romanised, civilised and Latin
speaking, the same breed of Celts of which came Saint Patrick, the patron saint
of Ireland.
Britons from the Welsh Marches (The Welsh border area of
England) were well-regarded for their skills with a crossbow. Thus, they were often used as "hired
guns" to supplement most of the armies of Western Europe at that
time. Their adeptness at archery is attributed to two reasons. The
first being that since they hailed from a volatile border region perpetually at
war, there was a sense of constant danger from invasion by Welsh marauders.
Consequently, archery practice was mandatory, twice per day, six days a week
for every adult male. Secondly, there is a unique branch of Yew tree
indigenous to the Welsh Marches, the wood of which could be crafted into an
especially lightweight yet tense bow, capable of launching arrows at a
considerable distance and with high accuracy.
Meanwhile, in the last quarter of the Twelfth Century
there was clan unrest in neighbouring Ireland.
A dispute grew over the years between the McMurrough’s, Chiefs of
Leinster at the time, and the O’Rourke’s of neighbouring Meath. For years each leader of their respected clan
claimed the title of High King of Ireland.
A subsequent argument over a women turned this quarrel over kingship
into outright warfare. The O’Rourke’s secured
the support of the powerful O’Connor clan of Connaught, leaving McMurrough
outgunned and outnumbered.
Consequently, McMurrough sought assistance from Norman
mercenaries in England and Wales. de
Clare made a financial agreement to assist the McMurrough Clan of Leinster in
their war with the O'Rourke's and O'Connor’s.
de Clare hired hundreds of skilled bowmen like the original Marren
ancestor, Mr Harris. Mr Harris may have had the first name Walter, or have
been the son of a Walter Harris, as there are strong genetic links between
those surnamed Marren, Marron and Harris with others bearing the last names:
Waters, Watters, Watts, Watkins and Watson, all of which mean "son of
Walter." Indeed, the genetic codes are so similar, geneticists
believe there is a family link to Marren's (as well as those who spell the name
Marron) and those bearing the surnames Waters, Watts, Watkins, etc in Ireland
and in the Welsh Marches today. Other family names bearing genetic links
to the Marren/Marron, Waters/Watters/Watkins/Watts and Harris surnames are
Frain/Freyne and McGivney/Givney in Ireland, as well as Autry, Norton and Crowe
usually found in the Harris family point of origin in the Welsh Marches, the South
West of England and in South Wales today.
English-speaking Britons served in what would be similar
to the enlisted ranks of the Norman armies, while French-speaking descendants
of actual Normans would have been the nobility who made up the “Officer
Corps,” riding on horseback. McMurrough's gamble was successful in the
fact that by hiring the Normans under de Clare, this led his clan to win the
war for Leinster over O'Rourke and O'Connor. However, McMurrough paid a
high price. Much of the most fertile farmland in McMurrough territory in
what is now known today as counties Wexford, Waterford and Carlow was carved up
and given over to the Norman mercenaries as tribute.
Based on their rank every officer and enlisted man was
given a certain amount of arable land. Records of the time indicate the
original Mr Harris, an archer, received a small plot of land for his service,
upriver from Enniscorthy in County Wexford. It was near the Carlow border,
in the Norman territory controlled by the noble Prendergast family. Today that plot of land is near the town of
Bunclody, County Wexford. Till this day the surname Harris remains
prominent in that region, as also does the family names Waters and Watts who
share similar DNA.
As the centuries passed, the Normans and native Irish Gaels
intermarried. They learned to live together as neighbours and see
themselves all as one Irish people. Indeed, it is said that the Normans
became so Hibernicised they eventually became "more Irish than the
Irish." It was some two-hundred years after their arrival that one of
the descendants of the original Mr Harris, the Twelfth Century mercenary archer,
a male heir was born around 1400 AD. His name was Mearan Harris. He was named
after the Irish saint born in 565 AD, Saint Mirin of Bangor, Ulster. St
Mirin, along with St Columba helped to convert the Scots to Christianity.
Sometime in the mid-1400s Mearan Harris led a large band
of his extended family including those named Waters/Watters/Watts, (Mc)Givney
and Frain/Freyne on a resettlement journey from County Wexford, where the
Harris family served under the Prendergast's, to County Louth/County Monaghan
border area. It was there that they
would now oblige themselves to another Norman family, the Taaffe's. This
journey northward from Wexford was so celebrated that sometime in the late 1400’s
a branch of Mearan Harris' descendants changed their surname in his honour to
O'Mearain. Many of these same descendants still reside in the Monaghan,
Louth and Armagh area, where they today spell their surname, Marron.
In 1610 a branch of these O'Mearain's were once again on
the march. This time, however, they moved
westward under the oblige of one of the lesser Taaffe nobles who acquired a
large area of territory from the O’Hara clan.
This land acquisition was located in the southern reaches of County
Sligo. An O'Mearain and his extended family, including some of the Waters/Watters/Watts,
Frain and (Mc)Givney cousins also accompanied the Marren’s. They were led by Jasper Brett, Lord Taaffe's
man charged with scouting the newly gained land for the Taaffe family. It
was here the O'Mearain family settled permanently in County Sligo. Thus, the
surname Marren (spelled MarrEn, not MarrOn) is now associated with the border
areas of Sligo and northern Mayo, where it is almost exclusively found today. The surnames Waters/Watters/Watts, Frain and (Mc)Givney
are also found abundantly in this area.
There were several other families with Norman histories
and ties to the Taaffe’s who accompanied the Marren’s and Jaspar Brett on this
journey from Monaghan and Louth to South Sligo.
They included those surnamed Stenson, Cooke, Jones and Maye, to name a
few. These surnames are also common in the South Sligo border
area near County Mayo, where they’re often found till this day.
Linda Messina Holda
Linda Messina Holda
William * Arthur Jr. Phillips g-gf her father 1867 Ottawa Canada - Chicago 1959
William * Phillips, Sr., gg-gf his father, Guelph Ontario 1848 - Chicago 1901
James * Phillips Jr., 5g his father, Lanlivery, Cornwall 1806 died in Liskeard, Cornwall 1871
James * Phillips Sr., 6g his father, Truro, Cornwall 1780 -1869
Joseph * Phillips, 7g his father, Truro, Cornwall, 1755 -1832
John * II Phillips, 8g his father St, Erth Cornwall 1708 -1767
John * [1st] Phillips, 9g 1665 Phillack, Cornwall, England 1730 (at age ?~65?) St Erth, Cornwall, England
Stephen E Owens
?
Mychele Owens Mccall Chri
Cassidy Bond
Patricia A Evans
Gilly M Mills
I would love to hear from any members of the Irish branch of the family who can shed light on my grandmother's ancestry?
Brian John Roach
Kyle Hughes
I have tracked my family down to Hugh Herbert Hughes out of Leitrim County Ireland and migrated to Wallumbilla in Queensland ?
?Katherine Short
Maureen Vigrass Maguire
Jackie Volbrecht
I am certainly planning a trip someday to see the origin of my wonderful family. As far as famous there really are non that I am aware of, but we did have some outlaws in our family during the cowboys days. I'm so excited to get to know you all.?
Sandra Bowen
Sandra ( Sandy ) Bowen
Phillips
Pritchard
BJ (Wilgus) Larmouth
Dennis Parry
?
Sandra BOWEN
Robert James
Peters Jones
Pat Finlay
I am looking for further information on the Vaughan family.?
She also spoke of Galway.?
?
??Damiën Peters
Phillip Lee
Michelle Gauthier Roberts
Ann Harrington
Noelle Rice
Danny Hopkins
James Moyer
Thomas Evans (my great x 4 grandfather)
Arrival date in US: 15 June 1864
Age 45 (b. circa 1819)
Port of Departure: Liverpool, England (and Queenstown, England)
Arrival: New York (Castle Gardens)
Ship name: Olympus
Class: steerage??????
Anna (Anne) Powell Evans (my great x 4 grandmother)?Arrival date in US: 15 June 1864 ??????Age 50 (b. circa 1814)
Port of Departure: Liverpool, England
Ship name: Olympus
Class: steerage
??
Susan Dannen
Lloyd Vaughan
Katey Rice
Lori Burcham
Phillips
Phillips
Andrew Wayne Peters
?
Jacinta Bennett
Robin Renee Jones
My name is Robin. I'm looking for informati?on and my history. My 2nd Great Grandfather was James Jones, born in 1838 in Armagh Northern Ireland. He moved to england. Married Jane Hughes then to Porepunkah Australia. His Father was George Jones (1800-1844) and mother was Margaret McConnell (1810-1842) from Newry.
George and Margaret ?stayed in Newry.
?
Thank you for any lights you can shine.?
??
Neal A Schoeller
Alan Griffiths
Eilir Wales101
Eilir Wales101
Eilir Wales101
Eilir Wales101
To find out more about David and Evan's maritime careers, start by consulting the welshmariners.org.uk website to see if they are listed there, and (if so) what their entries contain. Some pay-to-view genealogical sites (such as www.ancestry.com) host Master Mariners Certificates and other maritime sources which could be of help.
Brian Grove
Rex Davis
?
?
??
?
?
?
Waters, Moss, Halloran, D
John Waters est dob 1820 from Killbeggan Westmeath?.
I cannot trace anything, this info was obtained from a birth cert. He came to Australia prior to 1846, as he had a child that year. He then married in 1851 to Margaret Halloran (daughter of Patrick Halloran dob1805 Tulla, Co.Clare & Mary Duggan dob 1815 Tulla, Co.Clare)
I ?cant find any details of him entering Australia (if he was a free settler or convict?) On a childs birth cert x marked his spot.
Scott Roberts
Judith Ann Hess
Daniels
Leonard
Oliver
Oliver
Rogers
Rice
Richards
bennett
Walters
Blackwell
STEPHENS
Williams
Morris
Roberts
Robert N Slocomb Jr
Morgan
Powell
Roberts
Martin Daniels
Jeff Roberts
Callum Pierce
Debra merpaw
Eilir Wales101
Mary
Harry Griffiths
Debi Johnson
Adekunle Hughes
Eilir Wales101
Griffith
mary stephenson
Sandy Bowen
Eilir Wales101
Billy M Mueller (Daniel)
Jones
Leonard
Leonard
Roberts
Regina Smith
Darklene annette jenkins
Rice
Julie M Hughes
Michael Daniels
Leonard
Rogers
Dave Owens
Jeff Walters
Rogers
Louise Leonard
Leonard
Daniel Vaughan
Daniels
Stephen Richards
Ashley Vaughan-Redwine
Emma Desson
Stephen Stanley
Brenda Conway
Oliver
Shaun Leonard
Jones
Eilir Wales101
Christopher
Davis
Jones
Eilir Wales101
Phylis Harmon
Mr Lee P Conway
FLING
David Owens
Rogers
Margaret Herbert
Matthew Powell
Eilir Wales101
Pierce
Tonianne Morris
Eilir Wales101
Waters
Wynneth (Peters) Mullins
Judy
Ellis
Barry Heeran
Morris
Davis
Barry Heeran
Charles R. Evans
Derx
Jenkins
Christy Conway
Griffiths
Eilir Wales101
Birgit Blume
Tony Fawcett
Roberts
John Pinch
Florence Morris
Derek Waters
Evans
Eilir Wales101
Evans
Owen
Jane
Chris Tucker
James Lazos
Patricia Harris
Miles Hodges Pritchard
Roberts
Pierce
margaret egan elwood
Morehu Pritchard
Robert Lee
Peter Dooley
Griffith
Lauren Mathis McCarter
Morgan
Iannick Vézina
Rachael Blackwell
Owens
Daniels
Summer Vaughn-Littledave
Rhonda Harris
Jason Robert Pritchard
Conway
Patrick Conway
Janie Johnson
Eilir Wales101
Morris
Eilir Wales101
Brooke Vaughan
Sandra Herbert
Andrew Hibberts
Royce Craig Morgan
Hughes
Jan Schonhaut
Gabriel Leonard
HETTIE PRETORIUS
Morgan
Owens
Wendy Pritchard
Deb Dewis
Jenkins
Kevin brunty
Hannah Joy
Nick Jenkins
Jeffrey Jenkins
phil starrs
George William Thomas Rob
Powell
Eilir Wales101
Stephen Owens
Owen
Morris
Jacqueline Pierce
Tammy owens (stone)
Sarah Comer
?son -Thomas owens (b.1712?)
?Thomas owens son was Mosby owens b.1750(?) In Buncombe co, North Carolina
I have tons of information on this line of Owens ....but seems to be somewhat out of order? / names mixed up , as it was written and handed down ?
Reginald Owens
JENKINS
Jones
Mary Lee
Morgan
Morris
Owens
Debra Rajkowski
Dodd
Amy Howell Whitehouse
Tom Bowen
Nathan Bowen
DOMINIC
Kristen Owens Pozna
Stephanie l Klima
Stephanie Klima
Heather
Dianna Pritchard Black
Linda Morris Fangmeier
Jeremy owens
Karen Dyer
Rae Barlow
Tracy
Douglas McElroy
Rachael Bliss
Kylie Ellis
Edward Lewis
Eilir Wales101
Glenn Stephens