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Irish Catholic "Ward" surname

Does anyone have information or ideas about tracing genealogical roots prior to 1818? There appears to be a lot of information for those that left Ireland during the "potatoe" famine, or 1850 onward. My GGGrandfather, William Ward b 1798 in Ireland, arrived in New Brunswick Canada around 1818.

My problem is, there is no record of what ship he arrived on or port of arrival (assume St. John NB). Also, aside from information that he was Catholic, there is no indication of which county he is from or port sailed from.

I have found references to "Irish Workers" in New Brunswick, which I understand to be boys who were indentured to farm families New Brunswick for a period of time, and then allowed to strike out on their own. My William would have been about 20 on arrival, possibly tied to a Loyalist English family in Oromocto, and possibly The Kimballs, as he married into that family in 1826. He was also able to buy a 150 acre farm in 1835.

Using the Irish given name theory, his first born son named after wife's father works with James b in Oromocto NB 1828, his 2nd son should be after his father, which would be John Ward.

So it leaves me to look for a John Ward, Catholic, born sometime in the mid to late 1700's. But where?

Earl Ward

4 replies

Earl:

The surname Ward was/is very common in Ireland and was/is found in every county in Ireland. There are very few records back to the mid-1700s.

You may want to consider a DNA test. There are two types. Since you are a Ward, you can take a Y-DNA test which tracks your pure paternal line (father, fathers father, etc.). This test can be fairly expensive depending on the level of your Y test. Family Tree DNA is the main company for this test. There are sales now because of Father's Day.

The other test is an autosomal DNA test which identifies matches on all of your family lines (paternal and maternal). A number of companies provide this test. Ancestry DNA has the largest data base.

Roger McDonnell

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

thanks Roger, I will check out the Y-DNA test. I have done the other, and it has only led to distant connections.

Regards,

Earl

 

Earl Ward

Roger is right about there being Ward's in most parts of Ireland, but there are two main concentrations.  In his Surnames of Ireland, MacLysaght says that the original Irish name is Mac an Bháird, meaning "son of the bard" (as pronounced in Irish, the main part of the name could be either Ward or Vard, depending on the dialect).  He says that the name originated separately for two different bardic "septs" (sub-tribes, more or less), one in Donegal and one in Galway.  The name distribution map for the surname Ward at the "Irish Origenes" site [www.irishorigenes.com] shows that the name is still highly concentrated in those two locations (plus Dublin, probaby due to later moves to the big city - one can find almost all Irish surnames in Dublin).  I'm attaching a copy of the map for the Ward surname.

Since you've done a dna test, you might look more closely at people with roots in Donegal or Galway.  I'd also look at Mayo and Roscommon.  They adjoin Galway and the same surnames often occur on both sides of their common borders (the county borders were a later creation anyway). I know there are a number of Ward's in Mayo, because I have a few Ward relatives there myself.

If you haven't done it already, I also recommend that you upload your dna results at the GEDmatch site [https://www.gedmatch.com/]. ; Test results from other sites can be uploaded there for free, and that way you can possibly find matches who did not test at the same company as you.  There are instructions at the GEDmatch site on how to download the results from the site where you tested and then upload them at GEDmatch.

Note: For some reason the hyperlinks I gave above are not working, but the url's are correct, so you could just type them into your browser instead.

 

 

kevin45sf@yahoo.com

Thanks for the tips Kevin. I had also learned that the Ward name was synonymous with the "Travellers", and not well received in Irish neighbourhoods!.

My William arriving here in 1818, supposedly 20 years old, ultimately buying a 150 acre farm which stayed in the family until the Town of Oromocto bought it in 1954 was a tad more industrious.

Thanks, again, 

Earl Ward

Earl Ward

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