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Subject: Re: [DNA] Help Please - Irish Surnames
Date: Thu, 18 May 2006 15:29:03 EDT
Thanks, Hal. I'll pass this info to my hubby. Every little bit helps. I
wonder if there are any FitzGeralds alive today who can definitely trace their
lineage back to any of the early FitzGeralds. It would be interesting to see
what their haplogroup is.
Nora
In a message dated 5/17/2006 2:21:45 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
writes:
According to my Yale genealogy (Rodney Horace Yale, "Yale Genealogy and
History of Wales, Beatrice, Nebraska, 1908) (which claims male line descent
from the FitzGeralds of Ireland) the Gherardini from Florence was Dominus
Otho who "passed over into Normandy and thence into England, in 1057 where
he became ... a favorite of Edward the Confessor." His son, Walter Fitz Otho
was treated as a another Norman by William's Normans. Walter married Gladys,
daughter of Rhiwallon ap Cynfyn Prince of North Wales, and it was their son
Gerald FitzWalter or Gerald de Windsor, who married Nesta, the daughter of
Rhys ap Tewdwwr, Prince of South Wales, who had been the mistress of Henry I
(their sons were called Fitz Herny)
It was apparently their son, Maurice Fitz Gerald, who with his half brother
(by Nesta's second husband, Stephen the Castellan) Robert Fitz Stephen, led
the first Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169. Maurice Fitz Gerald married
Alice, daughter of Arnulf de Montgomery. It seems this would have been the
first "Norman" blood in the FitzGerald family. Surnames were still a few
hundred years off in Wales, and I suspect at least several generations in
Ireland as well.
It was a great grandson of Maurice Fitz Gerald, Osbwrn Wyddel, who emigrated
from Ireland to Wales about 1260. I think these old legends are fun. My
Italian American daughter-in-law enjoys the fact that my most interesting
line (the one with some good legends and some royals attached) is Italian in
origin.
I wish there was a Yale project we could test to see what the haplogroup is.
Hal
on 5/16/06 6:07 PM, at wrote:
>
> Thanks for the info, Jason. So, it looks like my husband's line (E3b)
> incorporated the Norman's custom by using Fitz to indicate male heirs. I
> wonder when his surname changed from Gerardini to Geraldini? Perhaps it
had to do with pronunciation, Italian vs Norman.
>
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