Galbally Limerick - 5 years ago ~

 Dave Font and I checked with Bernie Cullen of the YDNA I2a group about Big Y for Faunt Fant Faunt men

"no good genealogy reason for any Font/Fant etc to do a Big Y at this moment.
Five years ago, we didn't really know if the Fonts were connected to other Irish or English families, or if they had a more recent connection to families from continental Europe. Now that other families have done Big Ys and SNP testing, we can say that the Fonts aren't connected to any known Irish or British families.

There are many PF4189+ PF4190- families from England and Scotland, and they belong to several different branches below I-PF4189, and we can say that these families have been in Britain for 2,000 or 3,000 years or longer. This is something we discovered only from Big Ys.

But the Fonts are PF4189+ PF4190+ and we can say that there are no other likely British or Irish families in this group, instead  PF4189+ PF4190+ includes a large portion of the men in Sardinia, and it includes a few men from places like Germany and France.

If a Font does a Big Y, he will learn exactly how many SNPs he shares with some anonymous men in Sardinia, and he will learn approximately when his common ancestor with these men lived."

I'm proud of how far we have come  since the first test with a Faunt and a Fant in 2005.

John McDermot has found in this book Irish Exchequer Payments, 1270-1376, by Connolly this: "The father of the justice Walter (not the justiciar, but working for him- the justiciar was the governor of the country, a position held from the mid-13th century by knights connected with the king’s military household; paid about £500 p.a., from which he paid others- there might be a strong connection between the justiciar of the time & Walter Lenfaunt) was John, who also had a son Adam."

So we know of the 2 Walter L'enfaunts living in Ireland at that time that one is Walter son of John and one is Walter son of Walter..for sure, both living in Kildare..
And he says this : "If we could find some documentation regarding grants to the family in Ireland. I think it begins with the custodianship of Kildare Castle by Walter. Adam helped in this, while Walter did other duties in the king’s pay."

and this: " Walter Lenfaunt was paid £20 p.a. as the Keeper of Kildare Castle from 1299 on. The money was paid to his brother Adam Lenfaunt that year. In 1302, Walter handed the castle over to Albert de Kenley on the king’s instructions. Though he is mentioned in relation to the castle 1300-4.

Richard Lenfaunt was paid £10 that year.

Walter was also paid for horses & arms used in the king’s service. This in 1282 (also in 1275-6). The King made him a gift of £33 in 1285. He also was granted lands formerly held by Henry (son of Simon) de Rocheford. This in 1301-2.

In 1308-9, Walter was pressed into service in Richard de Burgh’s expedition to Scotland in the king’s service.

There is a whole series of annual payments to Walter as a justice of the Justiciar’s court; from 1286-91 he was paid £180. On overage, he was paid £20 p.a. He was an itinerant justice also. He was in Co. Tipperary in 1305, in Co. Meath in 1302 [the index jumps about a bit].

Stephen, Bishop of Waterford, justiciar, for whom Walter Lenfaunt had a tally of £19.

William, Bishop of Emly & Walter Lenfaunt had a gift from the king of £28.

Stephen, the justiciar, from whom William La Faunt had a tally. This in 1282. "

I can see that those things are in this book but cannot search it..

James Fant will like that Walter indeed went to Scotland..

So what it may be is that John Lenfant in 1218 in Buckinghamshire is his grandfather, McDermot speculates..

The family is in Kildare and nearby Offaly.. John says this also "1297 Offaly..40 cows of the sister of Walter Lenfaunt robbed. Robbers fled & were followed [this is a serious theft, in comparison to the last – Walter & his immediate family were the wealthiest, plainly"

In Kildare as we discussed before is Walter son of John, Walter son of Walter, John Sr., Thomas, Adam, Alesia Lenfaunt le Gras and William.. Also Gilbert Lenfaunt the goose and chicken thief who we hope is a very distant relative..

Living_ DNA Faunt Carrow and my not-so native Irish

Some of my folks who are testing and have tested may like this.. From my Living_DNA test..
 As I look though where my markers( equals distant ancestors ) are in history and even pre-history is definitely telling me much of what I want to know..

Firstly I am mostly NOT Native Irish..Look at picture # 3 which is Post Norman Ireland and England..
 Yes in the Celtic immigration are vestiges of my ancestry and in the Bronze age.. but it is mostly gone by Norman Invasion..

Living_DNA says they cannot find a Norman "profile" and I can understand that.. I know my Faunts are in Shropshire in 1220 and Ireland working for the Norman Kings in 1250s as knights..They originated after the Ice Age in Sardiana per their "Y DNA( male line) then they are found in Norman France and two of them were still in Ponthieu in the 1350s as Castellans..

I see a lot of Scottish into North Ireland.. some of that I know ( Morehead/Cunningham/McCafferty)

So my Irish came from elsewhere into Ireland with the Normans and Plantations..

The entire Carrow line is Welsh..Was John Carrow from there or even Cornwall? His descendants were in many cases..

I am excited about seeing all my Welsh and those that lived in the Roman Settlements
 Enjoying this..

Fridays Faces From the Past - John Cunningham, 5th great Grandfather - Soldier? Looks like it~

My 5th great grandfather whose son Edmund Cunningham was father of Honora Cunningham who married William Fant..John Cunningham may have had a military pension and I have looked for many years to find where my Edmund Cunningham and Brigid Slattery were born-

It seems to have been in Cahir~

And my new ancestor may be Holloway ..

Military Monday - Barracks in Fethard Tipperary - Ireland to New Jersey - Military Men and Purple Hearts

                                         Barrack Street, Fethard Tipperary
                                
The Military barracks in Fethard was one of the oldest in the country. 
It was built on the site of the original Everard Mansion House.The Barton Mansion House was acquired in 1797 and converted into a temporary military barracks, lighted by oil, and used to accommodate two troops of Cavalry. It was converted into proper military barracks in 1805. 

The Barracks occupied an extensive area on the North of the Square and was initially occupied by horse-mounted troops. The Barracks proper had a good exercise ground amounting to an area of 15 acres. 2 roods, 0 perches.

Fethard Military Barracks was at one time an outpost of Clonmel, having a Howitzer Battery of the Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery stationed in Clonmel. In latter years it was an outpost of Cahir Military Barracks being occupied by a battery of artillery of the Cahir Brigade Royal Field Artillery.

William Fant, Nailer married Margaret Hickey and had several children here on Kerry Street.He served the Army in some capacity and his sons William and Patrick Faunt and Patrick's sons joined the British Army at 18. 

William Faunt son of William the Nailer came to New Jersey with a British Army pension with wife Ellen Lynch and two sons Patrick and Will. Patrick's son George Patrick Faunt fought for the US and died  from wounds received in Italy. 

Surname Saturday - Fant Family of Ireland - Military Barracks in the 1850s

McDermott, my Irish researcher and I are connecting  family units of  the Fant family forward and backward from about 1850, using existing records. He was puzzling over a James Fant in England with mother Catherine.

When I looked at that I found that Catherine Fant was the daughter of a John Fant from Mallow Cork and Ann McLoughland of Londonderry. Catherine somewhat mysteriously has two sons James and John living with her after he father dies in 1857.

He brother Thomas is married with children and her other siblings seem not to marry.

John Fant was a Color Sergeant ( whatever that was) in Parkhurst Barracks located in Isle of Wight. It apparently was a predominantly Irish Regiment as the Colonel Jeremiah Taylor and his son, John B. Taylor was an Ensign.

I suspect these  Army records will point to many if not all of my 4th cousin DNA matches who insist they are Welsh. Parkhurst Barracks has 65 pages..I am in.

Mappy Monday - Monday May 30,2106 - Fants of Limerick Cork and Tipperary Ireland

Quite Recent research, (of course utilizing DNA) and extensive records, show strong interconnectedness between Kilbeheny and Kilmallock Limerick Fants and those found in various Tipperary locations and Brigown, Mitchelstown and Fermoy Cork in the late 1700s and into the 1850 period.

The town of Mitchelstown lies close to the point where the counties of Cork, Limerick, and Tipperary all meet. It is located within the poor law union of Mitchelstown. The poor law union lies in County Cork and County Limerick. 

The town is in the Cork civil parish of Brigown, and in the Cork barony of Condons & Clangibbon.
Mitchelstown Union is in the baronies of Condons & Clangibbon and Fermoy. 

The union was created in 1850, at the end of the famine, carved out of the existing unions of Clogheen (in County Tipperary) and Fermoy.

Follow Friday - Arthur Fant Physician of Tipperary, Arkansas and Texas ~

           Follow us with  DNA and figure things out..

In my DNA at AncestryDNA I apparently match some distant Fants.. Years ago, our dear departed friend Bert Fant from Arkansas told me about Arthur Fant a physician, born in Ireland and living in Arkansas and later dying in Texas.. unrelated to the Fants of "the Book" and sometimes spelling it Fort.

John McDermott and I speculated about Arthur-the- physician.. he sometimes styled his name with other spellings..
 Other Virginia Fants do that of course..My good DNA buddy Luther Franklin Fant has found matches with other lines with names like Elias spelled a different way..
 Proud of you Luke for pursuing this thing with me !

So now I find Anne Phant/Fant marrying with a John Howard, in Templemore Tipperary and having a lot of children.. TWO of her children's Baptismal sponsors were "Arthur Fant/Pfant/Forte"

I am also quite proud of my 5th cousin who was first cousin to my first little playmate on East Line Street. Yay Bill Howard and Frank J Howard.. Bill has followed me into this mess and is doing a great job of figuring it out..

Tombstone Tuesday - Mary ( May) Fant Westenskow - Immigrant daughter of Patrick Fant of Durham and Cork

My chasing of DNA cousins quite often results in English or Welsh  cousins and I sharing an Irish ancestor. This is easily explained by the fairly high percentage of Irish in my genome and that most of my ancestors came to the US after 1850.

I believe Mary "May" Fant and I share 4th great grandparents, James Fant and Bridget who lived around Brigown Cork. She marries a man born in Utah of Danish ancestry and names a son Parley Faunt Westenskow.

Motivation Monday - Nearest Place That Wasn't Ireland- Fants from Ireland into UK

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"

Motivation Monday- My extensive Donegal DNA matches

Looking and looking through the now online Parish records for Ireland..Doohan/Dugan/McClafferty/McFadden DNA matches are all intertwined..

81 % of people living where my Mary Doohan/Dugan Faunt was born ( the records are in Gortahork or Ray) are still Irish speakers ..


 It is said that this Colmcille ringed Celtic Cross is the tallest and oldest in Ireland..

Tombstone Tuesday ~ The last White Knight ~ Kilmallock Abbey Limerick

 In the center of the Choir lies Edmund Fitzgibbon the last White Knight who died in 1608. Edmund was married to Ellen Burgat daughter of Jenetta ffant and John Burgat of Fantstown Limerick.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Castle built by the Fant family in the 1300s ~ Fantstown Limerick

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Kilmallock Abbey Limerick

                                             

Lost their lives at Liscarroll Cork September 3rd, 1642 and the following epitaph is engraved on the wall at Kilmallock Abbey, St. Saviour's Church where they were inurned.
                            1642 
 Sept 3rd what year those figures tell, 
 Saw three youths inurned, untimely dead,
... Brothers and kinsmen pledged,in just war fell,
 King, Country God, approve wherefore they fell.
 Youth’s virgin purity, true martyr blood,
 Mark out their corpses from the mangled heap
 As lilies struggling amidst the ensanguined flood,
 Three deserved well- Three names thou marble keep
George, Edward Burgat   Brothers and
Alexander Burgat Nephew
                                           

Military Monday - Gallowglass and Kern in the Desmond Wars

Reading  a book about Eleanor Countess of Desmond I see that their Galloglass were the McSheehys. Roric McSheehy held a vill and land at Ballycullane near Limerick under the Earl so James Ffant who murdered Patrick Ffant at the Glassie Gate in Kilmallock was on the Fitzgerald /Desmond side of the struggle.. the Gaelic side and not the Ormond Butler side..It may have been part of this struggle..

2nd thing I learned was that the Galloglass wore heavy armor and mail and fought with swords an...d lances and that the Irish who fought were the Kerns..they fought barefoot or lightly shod in clothing that was adapted to the climate and terrain and used swords, darts( throwing knives) axes and bows and were very effective.. Many Fants were Kerns, probably in charge of others.. They were quick and fast..

There were Butlers and Fitzgeralds on both sides of this struggle.So very likely that Fants were also.Eleanor Countess of Desmond was a Butler as had been Garret ( Gerald) Fitzgerald's first wife and the mother of Black Tom who was the Earl of Desmond.

There was a pardon granted to John Faunte, kern, of Ballyderonty Limerick in 1567, and there was a pardon granted to John Faunt, horseman, of Fantstowne in 1584. James & John Fant of Clangibbon are also mentioned in pardons at this time. That tells us that others in the family survived these struggles.

 Any battle at Fantstown would have involved all kinsman fighting with the landholder at the castle itself but that Castle passed into the hands of Thomas Burgat by 1585 and then to his son and heir John who was married to Genet Ffant who was very likely his ward.

It was at this time that some Fants were in Tipperary. Were they allied with the Butler family, the  Earldom of Ormond? It is very possible. James and John Fant of Clangibbon would have been affiliated with the "White Knight" Fitzgibbon who at that point was also attainted and linked with the Desmond faction. We know that Ellen Burgat,Genetta Fant Burgat's daughter marries Maurice Fitzgibbon the last "White Knight" but one.

The Fant family  has redrawn their territory at this time. One Patrick Fant hold lands both in Limerick and Kildare in the 1550s so he is likely the man who was murdered or of his line. We know we have the family who are in  Fermoy and are linked to the Roche and  Fitzgibbon families. My own family is in Bansha, Fethard ,Cordangen and Fethard in the 1600s, also in Ballyporeen and Mitchelstown Cork until they exit  Ireland or move down  to Cork City . They were survivors and did what they needed to.

Census Sunday ~ Limerick Civil Survey 1655 and the Fante family

In the Civil Survey of Limerick in 1655, Patrick Fante of Galbally was one of the Jurors charged to "return a survey of the Barony" of Costlea. The parishes thus surveyed were Galbally, Ballingarry and Larhagly, Doone and Long, Atheneasy, Kilbridy Major and other small places.

This was a record of land ownership so that the English government could carry out their policy of land distributorship.

Itemized in this area was John Burgat of Fantstowne, an Irish Proprietor. John Burgat also held land in the"Towne and Liberties of Kilmallock", specifically the Parish of St.s Peter & Paul, as did Nicholas Fante.

Also itemized under "Denomination of  Lands and thire metes and Bounds" are family names Nicholas Fante in Kilmallock, and Ellen Burgatt, Daughter in law of  Genettta Fant Burgat and Ellen FitzGibbon, widow Genetta's daughter in Coshlea.

Ellen Fitzgibbon, daughter of Genetta Fant Burgat was married to Maurice "Oge" FitzGibbon, the "White Knight" son of Maurice Fitzgibbon and Sheela Burke. His widow, she was to be transported to Connaught in 1661 but apparently never was.

In 1666, also, Fantstowne was confirmed to H. Posonby and Lord Colloony in the Acts of Settlement after having been held by J. and Ellen Burgatt in 1657.

Wordless Wednesday ~ William Adlai Faunt and Cousin Edward Faunt Sr.

Church Records and Census Sunday ~ The Faunts of Louth and Kildare

I happened upon a  military census today while doing my habitual searching for Faunts. William Faunt of Louth served in the10th Foot and was stationed in Chelsea in 1811. He was 5'9" (he grew an inch after enlistment) and had fair skin, grey eyes,brown hair and a long visage. I know there are Flaxgrowers in Louth in a census and I thought to figure out the family.


In  or around January 1384 one of the Walter L'enfants dies leaving a widow Elena and son and heir Thomas. This Walter held lands in Kildare and Louth and held in chief in Ardee. Thomas was surely young as we then find him claiming the manor of Ardee in September 1403 which he  and his heirs would hold of the King. In 1406 he pays to have any fines removed from his lands in Kilkenny.

In 1394 Nicholas Faunt is mayor of Drogheda and a William Faunt is Vicar of Drogheda in the late 1370s. We can assume that Thomas son of Walter had cousins and uncles, although they were not the lords of Ardee. The book Crisis and Survival in Late Medieval Ireland: The English of Louth and their Neighbors, 1330-1450  indicates the Faunts were the Lords of Ardee until after 1430.

This line of the Lords of Ardee died out sometime after this but the descendants of some of these people lived on through the 19th century apparently as we can see here with William  the soldier. Living there also were James of Tallenstown and Thomas of Phillipstown and Patt and others like James in Edmonstown as well.in the late 18th century.

We know that at least two lines go extinct for titles of persons descending from one or another Walter L'enfant. The Peerage held by Walter the Justice becomes extinct by 1374, as does the Lordship of Ardee after 1450.The lineage of this family, carries on in their descendants although without the lands and titles.

The Y DNA lines have proven this as a fact and we continue to gather records and tell their story. There are few now who live in Ireland but they left their imprint on the land for these 700+ years since they came to it.

                                                      Medieval Gate- Drogheda Louth

Wordless Wednesday - Gulielmus ( William ) Maher ~ Requiescat in pace my cousins

Gulielmus ( William Maher ) born  on  7 May 1858  in Wolverhampton, Stafford, England  to Jeremiah Maher  and Margaritae( Margaret ) Fant and died in Bolton  December 5, 1932.

Cousins of mine who went from Tipperary, to Staffordshire, to Cork and some then died in Liverpool. William ( baptized Gulielmus)  dies in Bolton Manchester, interestingly his parents married Church of Ireland but the children were raised Catholic.

Friday Faces From the Past - Mercenaries and Made Men

                                                    Shrewsbury, Shropshire ~ and Sicily?

Shrewsbury is within  the winding course of the Severn, which is crossed by two bridges, called English and Welsh bridges.From Debrett's Peerage, we find  that in  1222 Robert I' Enfant was Provost of Shrewsbury.

Also in Shropshire we find  William L'enfant  as Bailiff of Munslow under William Bagod's Shrievalty  (sort of sheriff) but this is later in that century.William  is son of John, who was also may also be father to Walter and Adam, knights in Kildare.

What we see here on the Welsh Marches and the wilds of Ireland is a family who were, perhaps, landless in  the Midi Pyrenees region of their probable origin. Did they come into the British Isles with the Conquerer or was it actually the rulers of Aquitaine,Gascony a c. Warfare and specifically siege warfare was very sophisticated in the Midi and these fighting men sold their swords and indeed became made men.

A book entitled  "Mercenaries and Paid Men" discusses Robert L'Enfant as Justiciar of Sicily about 1272.
So were they "paid men" or  " made men" and where was their allegiance prior to this time?