How far back in your family tree can you go?
My sister is the better person to answer this. She’s the one who has asked the questions and done the leg work – not me.
But boy oh boy! Didn’t I fall down a rabbit hole this morning?
I do love hearing the stories of the little pieces of string that bind me to people in the past, and the string I like most is regarding my father’s side of the family.
If I do a Google search of the family name NUGENT, I can easily find:
The Anglo-Norman family of this name is descended from Fulke de Bellesme, lord of Nogent in Normandy, who was granted large estates around Winchester after the Conquest. His great-grandson was Hugh de Nugent (died 1213), who went to Ireland with Hugh de Lacy, and was granted lands in Bracklyn, County Westmeath. The family formed itself into a clan on the Irish model, of which the chief bore the hereditary title of Uinsheadun (Irish Uinnseadún), from their original seat at Winchester. They have been Earls of Westmeath since 1621.
(The name is now a common one in Ireland, and has been adopted there by some who have no connection with the clan.)
I found these details on Family Search as well as (according to their records):
33,388 people have the last name NUGENT in the shared Family Tree.
“Some could be your ancestors.”
I’m sure they could be.
And I also found on the Select Surnames website that:
All the principal branches of the Nugent family, including the main Devlin line, are descended from the marriage of Sir William Nugent and Catherine FitzJohn, recorded variously as being in 1385 or 1407. Sir William is believed to have been the first to have anglicized his name to Nugent.
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Although I cannot say whether or not the following is true, I have been told by various family members who were/are the investigators of our family tree that there were two brothers living in the French province of Nogent (not sure which one) and following a family dispute, one brother – the one from which my father’s family is descended – departed France and, most likely, his final destination was Ireland.
I’ve always known my father’s family heritage is Irish with a strong French connection.
My father’s ancestors arrived in Australia as either convicts or free settlers.
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As for my husband’s family name, HORAN, it’s an Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hOdhráin ‘descendant of Ódhrán’ a personal name based on odhar ‘dun-colored’ and according to legend borne by Saint Patrick’s charioteer. It originated in County Galway, Ireland, and from there spread into County Mayo and means “warlike”.
I have no idea about Dean’s family tree and, dare I say, he doesn’t either.
But I will say, there are precious few who know how to pronounce Horan correctly. I’ve been teaching or trying to teach people how to pronounce my surname my entire married life.
So for everyone out there who still doesn’t pronounce it correctly, listen carefully while Niall Horan teaches James Corden how to say it.
Phonetically it’s “HAW” + “ruhn”.
Or Whore-rin and it rhymes with Lauren.
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Read more about Bloganuary here.
CLARE'S COSMOS 