With 23andme back to almost full speed and AncestryDNA closing in at over 1.5 million testers and FTDNA's Family Finder with 300,000 maybe
I am increasingly aware of DNA cousin matches who are in England who definitely go back to a shared Irish ancestor.
This means of course that I am skeptical of any large Fant presence in England that did not originate in Ireland.
Why is that?
Because around the later 1500s they began to lose their Irish lands.. 1580s for sure..
Many many men who are in Ireland in the late 1790s in Brigown Cork which is quite close to Tipperary and Limerick both are in certain areas of England by 1841 when census records begin.
Marriage records even sooner..Which places? Derbyshire.. Thos Fant Burial May 24 1712 Wirksworth Derbyshire..
Durham..William Faint Gentleman's Servant and Rachel Wharton marriage St.Giles in the Field London..the family of Patrick Fant..
Actually the families of 3 separate Patrick Fants and extended families, the families of 3 Jeremiah Mahers and 2 Jeremiah Fants.. these men were born in Brigown Cork ( rural Mitchelstown) before 1780..
Did they just flock off to an unknown place? Surely not.. Occasional records have always been popping up which lead us to believe they were always there but I think that since written records began in the 1550s in UK they were going to these places.
It has been called "The Nearest Place That Wasn't Ireland"
