This Irish Genealogy site offers the Irish descendant (from New York, Canada, UK, Australia...) the chance to trace their Irish family tree and search for their surname origins and the records of their Irish ancestor's birth, marriage or death.

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Kyle J. Betit is a professional genealogist, lecturer and author residing in Salt Lake City, Utah. Kyle specializes in Irish and immigration research. Kyle Betit is Research Director of ProGenealogists, Inc., in Salt Lake City and the author of the Irish Genealogy Pages at http://www.progenealogists.com/ireland/

Questions and Answers: Surname Variations and British Military

February 2010

Some of the recent questions I have received from IrishAbroad.com readers are presented here with answers that hopefully provide helpful information for those researching Irish ancestors. If you have a question, please send your email to roots@irishabroad.com .

Surname Variations

Question: I am confused about the origin of my family surname because it kept changing from census to census in the U.S. I'm quite confident I have the same family in each case because they stayed within about a 10-15 mile radius, had several children, and the children advanced (more-or-less) by ten years for each census... In 30 years we had five surname variations: Mullowen, Malan, MA Lone, Malon, and Malane. I've read where some of these variations might actually have a common origin. Others, perhaps not. I have seen the surname Malane once in a while but more so in the U.S. and Australia. As I begin to work backwards in time into Ireland I am a bit confused as to what name I should look for. If it's any clue, we believe they came from County Tipperary. Do you have any recommendations on what name or names I should search?

Answer: I wonder if you have looked at Catholic records of the family in the US? This could be quite helpful in clarifying the most common surnames usages. In the end, the name could have been spelled differently in Ireland than in the US, and in both places the surname could have varied. A good resource for examining surname variations is the Surname Search on the Irish Times Irish Ancestors web site at http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/

British Military Officer and Family in County Tyrone

Question: I've found my Scot/Irish ancestors and know who they are, but cannot go beyond my great-great-grandfather. He was a retired officer of the British Army, 78th Regiment of Foot. He married my great-great-grandmother on the Isle of Corfu, Greece in 1815. There are several versions among our family papers, all I believe misspelled. I know who all his children were. All of them with the exception of my ggf were born in County Tyrone, in the Fintona/Seskinore area. I would appreciate your advice as to how I can proceed.

Answer: Here are some things that you may wish to pursue:

- The web site www.rootsireland.ie now has County Tyrone baptisms, marriages and burials.

- British Army records are quite extensive. These can be accessed at the National Archives London or at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City: http://globalgenealogy.com/globalgazette/gazkb/gazkb49.htm

- The records of the Registry of Deeds may contain multiple deeds about this family. Here is an article I wrote about Irish land records: http://globalgenealogy.com/globalgazette/gazkb/gazkb70.htm .

- Freeholders records could be useful - many are on the web site of the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, and there is an inventory on the ProGenealogists web site at http://www.progenealogists.com/ireland/freeholdersdata.asp .

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