Paul,
That's the first I've heard of "Fitz" meaning 'Son of a King' for as far as I've seen it merely means "Son of". However one surname
"Fitzroy" was a surname bestowed upon (illegitimate?) offspring of Royalty. See this link http://bit.ly/IRs9g .
:-)
&#E2;c&#A5;&#E2;c&#AA;&#E2;c&#AB; Fitzy &#E2;c&#A5;&#E2;c&#AA;&#E2;c&#AB; http://Wayne.FitzSimons.info




On Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 1:50 PM, QT - irishpaul
<qtopic-21-KBz4x3A67FT8@quicktopic.com> wrote:
>
< replied-to message removed by QT >

yes - Fitzsimmons is more Protestant spelling. Actually the name Protestant came from England, as they the Cromwell crew took it over and Fitzsimmons is an english name. There are Fitzsimons in Cavan, my parent are from then 1st gen.

Of course in Irish classes we get told Fitzsimons in from the viking days, son of a king, so king Simons, remember Ireland was used a lot in Viking days when they could not set up a base in England.

So If you records say you were a Fitzsimons back in ye old day, think of the fact in those days, it was down to the local preist to decide who to spell it and most people were just farmers, so if a priest spelt it their way - there was no one around to correct it. As a Irish Catholic and a Fitzsimons, if i meet an US Fitzsimmons - no worries - blame the bad spelling back in great great days.


Paul (now in Toronto)

My family came from Co. Cavan, and emigrated to America in 1847, ending-up in Iowa in 1850 where they farmed in Fayette County. The name in an 1868 map of the township where they lived is spelled Fitzsimons, but is Fitzsimmons in an 1879 map, and has been that way since, and the family was and is a Catholic family.

I've been to an old Catholic cemetery in Hannahstown, County Antrim where there are Fitzsimmons stones. The IRA section in Milltown Cemetery (Catholic) in Belfast has a Fitzsimmons stone.

I visited an old Fitzsimons man in Mullagh, Co. Cavan, and he told me with much winking, that there are Fitzsimons and Fitzsimmons. I took it that he meant Fitzsimons is the Catholic spelling and Fitzsimmons the Protestant spelling. Fitzsimons seems nearly universal in the telephone directory for the Republic of Ireland, but when the name travels to America, it is almost impossible to keep it spelled Fitzsimons.

Edited by author 22-08-2009 12:11 PM
Hi Haskell
You have come to the same conclusion as I have. i.e. Give up on the spelling. :-)
My Bank (when I opened another account despite already banking with them for 20 years and despite the application being hadwritten with one "m" opened the new account as "Fitzsimmons". I asked them to change it and they said I had to close the account and apply for another!!! Bearing in mind opening an account here is no small undertaking, with having to have many proofs of my ID etc - I said I'd change Banks before I'd do that. My pet dislike is when you pronounce your surname and spell it for them, and then they 'correct' you saying "Oh! Fitzsimmons! Sigh . . .

By the way I had a proper Forum here (designed to replace this QT setup) by nobody used it at all and it ended up just getting spam (porn) postings so I had to remove it.
Cheers
Wayne FitzSimons
Daylesford - Australia

 Great to find this forum. I am a resident of Raleigh, North Carolina. The "FitzSimons" folk came from Georgia in the last century. It appears that we have all suffered from well-meaning revisionist "spelling police" .... lots of confusion out there on the one 'm' / two 'm' dichotomy. As a "one-m-er". I can tell you that almost none of my mail is addressed to me properly! My bank of some 27 years STILL gets it wrong, despite a fruitless attempt on my part to set the matter straight some years back... they swore they would / could correct the matter, yet never were able to! I finally gave up! (It dosen't seem to matter much how I write my name on my checks.... hmmmmmm....)

Hi to all the fitzys out there,i managed to trace my grandparents to Rathangan in Kildare but after that i was told the records went astray
during the civil war in in ireland.
My grandfather was James Fitzsimons (farmer) and he married Elizabeth Shorthen in rathangan around 1896 or 7,my father passed away in 1951 at 54 years when i was very young so i did not get round to finding out much about his family,do i have relatives out there?? ,
P.P.Fitzsimons

Edited by author 13-01-2009 06:58 AM
Hello all, I will start by saying that this is a really cool site, very nice indeed.

My father's parents were born in Dublin, and moved to England and shortly thereafter on to Quebec. My mother's parents were born in Sheffield, England.

My father's father (obviously) was Sheeran, Anglicized version of O'Sirin, variations on the spelling of which are numerous: Sherren, Sheerin, etc.

Anyways, my father's mother was a FitzsiMMons, I believe, at least it was pronounced fitz-him-ons. Her first name was Shelagh, which is of course very Irish.

After reading Mick's article I now have some questions, and was wondering would you all be able to clear this up for me:

I am now wondering whether my grandmother was of an Anglo-Irish family settled in Dublin, hence the English spelling of the name. She was also a Presbyterian, which is of course Protestant, but of a Scottish variety. How confusing.

Or was her family one of those which misspelt the name, or had it re-spelt for them at some point. The evidence which suggests that she is not Anglo-Irish is her first name, Shelagh, which is very Gaelic, but of course this could be an example of Anglo-Irish embracing their country, as many did.

I am not as anxious to distance myself from the English as some of you seem to be, my mother being mainly of English extraction; this is merely a historical curiosity.

If you would be so kind as to point me in a direction where I may be able to find an answer to this question, I would be much obliged. Mark's hypothesis that any Fitzsimmonses in Ireland are most likely to be English-Protestant raises some other questions, and requires elaboration. Looking at the Irish Times website, which has a lot on Irish names, I saw that there was 55 occurrences of Fitzsimmons (late 18th - early 19th century), most of them from Down I believe, which was where the FitzSiMons were said to have abounded. Surely this indicates that the spelling Fitzsimmons must have been more common than Mick's article implies - or maybe English Fitzsimmonses flocked to Down so that they could be with Irishpeople of the same name? Right.

Anyways, I would love to hear more about this. Thanks so much for your patience, and one M or two, happy new year!

(Iam posting this on your new forum)

Wayne - are you in Australia? _I have now moved to Sydney.. I think I know your cousin Alejandra (think u did some of her web design.

My Fitzsimons clan is 1st generation from co Westmead - dad is from them. I was in Florida for a few years and now then Ireland again, and now with this crazy worldwide economy - Australia had the work.

Paul

--------------------------------------------------
From: "QT - Wayne FitzSimons" <qtopic-21-KBz4x3A67FT8@quicktopic.com> Sent: Tuesday, December 16, 2008 8:51 PM
To: "QT topic subscribers" <qtopic-subs@quicktopic.com>
Subject: FitzSimons Family Name

< replied-to message removed by QT >

Charles, both spellings and several others are from the same roots (see http://fitzsimons.info ) and an article from Mick Fitzsimons (small "s" amd one "m") who has an interesting article here
http://fitzsimons.info/one-m-or-two.html which contends that the double-m spelling is predominantly from the English side.

Only today my son Aaron FitzSimons found his name misspelled in today's paper by a journalanist who despite Aaron spelling it as above and stressing the upper case "S" one the one "m", she still couldn't help herself and spelled it by the most prevalent spelling as "Fitzsimmons".

I have had a lifetime of this indeed not only in spelling it, but by pronouncing FitzSimons (like Fitz-Sigh-mons) only to be immediately corrected by them "OK Mr Fitzsimmons". It's a lost battle Charles. :-)

I would like to point out that even though I am only 18 I want to get the point across that it's one "m" not two. And now I am spelling it with a capital "s" so everyone knows. I'm the only one it seems to care about my roots.