Welcome to the Fones (Fownes) Family Web Site
Dedciated to the memory of James "Jamie" Aubrey Fones
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Entries Made Since Sept. 24, 1997
This web site was put together in the
hope that it would be helpful to others as well as myself doing research
on the Fones
(Fownes) and related families. It wouldn't have been possible to
gather the information shown
here without
the help of many wonderful people. Please check back occasionaly
as information here is updated
over time, Good Hunting!
E. Bruce Fones, Web Site Coordinator.
bfones@fones.org
The name of Fones (Fownes), as some family
historians are of the opinion is a variant on the Celtic personal
Celtic Languages Celtic is a subfamily of the Indo-European
family of languages, At one time during the Hellenistic
Continetal Celtic
/ Gaulish Continental Celtic, which includes all
Celtic Idioms on the Continent with the exception of Breton,
The earliest record of the Fones (Fownes)
name is of a Sir William Fones, a Norman Knight who came over
Jill has provided some of her notes on
the Fones (Fownes) family in England and I've added them to the web
The Fones (Fownes) Families of America
came from England in the 1600's and settled in New England and
The Fones (Fownes,
Fawns) Families From The Tide Water Area of Virginia The Fones (Fownes)
families that settled in the Tide Water area of VA., in the counties of
Richmond and
Westmoreland
County Museum and Library
Anyone wanting to do family research in the
Northern Neck area should go to the Westmoreland County Museum
(Foneswood, VA. is only 5 miles approx: 10
min's from the museum.)
Bruce Fones (left)
and Jamie Fones (right) at Foneswood in Richmond County, VA. Sept. 1998 Jamie Fones passed away September 30, 2007
(a great loss to me and all doing research on the Fones family)
Tombstone photo's of Fones
graves in The Northern Neck Area of VA.
Here you will find pictures of some Fones headstones
I had time to photograph in 2007. When and if I'm able to
Westmoreland Pictures
I've added some pictures
here I thought might be of interest to those who have ancestors from Westmoreland
I've
uploaded most of the data I have on Fones (Fownes) Families originating
from Virginia so others can view it here.
Kentucky
Fones (Fawns) Information The Fones (Fawns) Families of Kentucky
are descendents of John Fones who moved from Virginia to Bath County
Tennessee
Fones Family Information I have just
started doing a study of the Fones families of Tennessee. I believe
this family is descended from the Fones
The TN. data
here is in Windows Notepad Format so anyone using a windows based OS can
view it.
While doing research on the Fones from
Virginia I have had contact with many folks doing research on
The
Fownes Family In Canada The first known
Fownes to arrive in Canada is believed to be William Fownes (known as William
Fownes the loyalist).
It is my hope that I will be able to
add a data base here on line like the one for the VA. based Fones (Fownes)
families
If you have information on this family line
please contact me.
Further Ongoing
Research: One of my goals is to locate records
that will document the connection between the VA., New
Persons doing research on the Fones (Fownes)
family might also want to review the postings on
Also the "Fones Surname Message Board"
at:
Some Outstanding
Free Genealogy sites On The Web Cyndi's
List of Genealogy Sites
If you have any information
(even if only a little) on any branch of these families please contact
me. Sometimes
E. Bruce Fones
name of "Fionn", which
means fair.
period, Celtic speech extended all the way from Britain and the
Lberian Peninsula in the west
across Europe to Asia Minor in the east. Today the Celtic
languages that have survived into the
modern era are limited almost entirely to the British Isles and
French Brittany. The Celtic subfamily
is made up of three groups of languages: the Continental,
the Brythonic (also called Bitish), and
the Goidelic (also called Gaelic).
died out following the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The
principal example of this group is the
now extinct language Gaulish, for little remains of any other Continental
Celtic tongues.
Gaulish was once the
language of Gaul proper (now modern France).
with William the Conqueror in
1066. He settled in a place called Saxby, where his descendants lived
for many
centuries. Other early
records are of a Petrus (Peter) Fonne, of Nottinghamshire, about the year
1292, those of
Peter Le Ffoon,
whose name appears in the Close Rolls of the time of King Edward III, circa
1331, and those
of Willelmus (William) Fones,
who was living in Yorkshire in the year 1379. From approx: the 1500's
into the
1700's Fones (Fownes) families
could be found in the Devonshire, Worcestershire and London areas of
England.
Some spellings of the name through early English history are: Fon,
Fons, Ffones, Fonne, Fonnes,
Ffoon, Foon,
Foones, Fowne, Fownes, Fones and others. The last two are the most
frequently used in modern
times.
Persons dong research on the Fones (Fownes) families might want to contact Jill
Sothcott as she has a
large amount
of information on these families. She is always looking for new contacts
with whom to exchange
data with.
Her Email is: Jsothcott@aol.com
page.
They are in html format and
can viewed by clicking on the following link:
Jill Sothcott's Notes
Virginia during the same periods.
The name was spelled differently by clerks and census takers who spelled
it
as it sounded
to them. Examples are, Fauns, Fawns, Foanes, Foans, Fones, Fons and
Fownes. I have found
direct connections
were all these spellings were used, the most common are Fones and Fownes.
Today the two
areas of the
U.S.A. that have the largest concentration of Fones (Fownes) families are
the Mid-Atlantic and
West Coast
States. There are only approx: 374 Fones, 29 Fownes in the U.S.A.
and 13 Fones, 51 Fownes in
Canada that
have listed phone numbers (1997).
Westmoreland
(part of the area known as the "Northern Neck") have been traced to the
1600's. Many of
them were
farmers and carpenters. They fought in all the major wars and most
belonged to the Baptist Church
from the late
1700's. There are Fones (Fawns) in KY. whose ancestors left VA. after
the Revolutionary War (See
KY.information below).
There are Fones in Texas who's family left VA. after the Civil War.
During the late
1800's many Fones resettled in
Northern VA. near Washington, D.C. to locate employment. These are
only a few
of the many areas Fones families
migrated to from the Tide Water area of Virginia.
The museum is a 2-story building
with a library which combines the library collections of the Museum and
the Northern
Neck of Virginia Historical Society.
The library is on the second floor of the museum. The building is
conveniently
located across from the old Court House in
Montross, Virginia. One staff person is normally available to assist
you.
The collection deals largely with the
Northern Neck of Virginia and includes vital records; family histories;
reference
works; military histories; church and
cemetery guides; histories of Virginia and Northern Neck towns and counties
immigration lists; census records; microfilm
of Northern Neck News, 1879-1939.
return to the area I will photograph more
and add them to the web site. If by chance anyone else has photo's
of others
please send them to me and I will add them.
Click on the link to view the photo's (Updated March. 14, 2009). Fones
Tombsones
County, Virginia. Click on the link to view them
Westmoreland Pictures
Fones
(Fownes) & Related Families Originating from Virginia
You will need to first click on the "Fones data available here on line"
link below. You will see a list of surnames included
in the data. Click on FONES or FOWNES and a index of names will come
up. This is only a partial list, at the bottom
you can click on back or next which will make the whole list available.
Chick on the name of interest and the data will
come up,
click on any name that shows up in the tree and that persons information
will come up..
KY. in approx; 1812 bringing
his family with him. Some of this family adopted the spelling of
Fawns instead of
Fones in the 1800's and still
use it today. I have placed some of the information I have on this
family here for your
viewing, you can see all of the
data on individuals by looking them up in the Virginia FONES (FOWNES) family
data base above.
(The KY. data here is in Windows
Notepad format so anyone using a windows based OS can view it.
Below is the link for most of
the KY. data only (updated Nov. 07, 2009):
KY. Fones
(Fawns) data
families
of Virginia but as of yet I can’t tie them together. As you look
at the data I now have and find you
have
information that could be added or if there are corrections to be made
please contact me.
Bruce
Fones, bfones@fones.org
Below
is the link for the TN. data only (updated Jan. 06, 2010)
TN. Fones Data
(Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont,
Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut)
their New England families.
Many of them shared information in the hope that I might come across
data that would be helpful.
I put this data into a file and only looked at it when asked for help concerning
New England Fones families.
I've hoped that a person with a zeal for genealogy would come along who
would take the led for this site
collecting and sharing New England Fones information. Possibly acquiring
enough data to put a data base
on the web site like the one for VA. Fones. Well such a person has
come
along who is willing to take
on the task.Rick Fones
who has been doing research on his own New England
roots is willing to take it on.
This will provide a central place where we can maintain the New England
data
we now have and obtain in the
future. It takes a lot of effort from many people to take data from
different
family lines and put it together.
So if you have New England roots and are willing to share your data with
others it would be helpful
if you contact Rick. Lets remember he has a life other then working
on genealogy
so let's not expect miracles
over night
.
Rick has recently provided enough
information from his research to put up a data base of the New England
Fones family information he now
has which is tied together. Please take a look at this data to see
if you have
any information that can be added
or see errors that need to be corrected. Even if you can't find a
connection
with your own families history
please share what you have with Rick so he can keep it the hope that he
might be able to tie it in later. You
can contact Rick at:r_rfones@yahoo.com
To see the information presently
in the data base first click on
"N.E. Fones data available here on line"
listed below.
You will see a list of surnames included in the data base. Click
on FONES and a index of names
will come
up. This is only a partial list, at the bottom you can click on back
or next which will make the whole
list available.
Click on the name of interest and the data will come up, click on any name
that shows up in the
tree and that
persons data will come up.
New
England Fones data available here on line
Notes by Anita Fownes
There is varying opinions and evidence
of when the family arrived in the colonies.. One belief is that William
and his
wife Isabella arrived from New
York County with the overwhelming majority of the loyalists in 1772 to
Nova Scotia.
What is missing
from this research is documented proof that William was either born in
America or England or even as
some say, Holland. The Provincial Archives
of New Brunswick in the "Background on the Grant book Database"
indicates that
land grants issued between 1763 and 1803 were for land located in the area
which makes up present day
New Brunswick. The arrival of great numbers of loyalists to Nova
Scotia, created land demands that could not be met.
In order to accommodate and administer the new settlers, the province of
Nova Scotia was partitioned and New Brunswick
was formed in 1784. There
are records at the St. Martin/Quaco Museum (Arrivals published by the New
Brunswick
Museum), indicate a William Fownes, Loyalist born 1750 who died 1846 was
said to have come to Cumberland 1772 Brit.
soldier,
who removed to St. Martins 1801. In Esther Clark Wright's book, "The
Loyalists of New Brunswick" she sites
a William Fownes (Fowns, blacksmith p432 St. John Co.) a parrtown grantee,
a Loyalist and may have settled at St. Martins
as early as 1798. Copies of land titles verify that William (1750-1846)
petitioned for land at St. Martins in 1805 for three lots
of land on
the Bay of Fundy with his two sons, William (1783/1785?-May 16, 1824) and
John (1787-May 13, 1858) and
again later in 1826, William "a British subject has served in his majesty's
service during the American rebellion is a native of
Great Briton" applied for and was granted "a tract of vacant Crown land
situate in the parish of aforesaid lying in the north
rear of these
lots to be in rear of Howard's grant (Quaco)", Situated in a grove of trees
on these lands at Melvin Beach
County (Little Beach) are the headstones of William, the Loyalist (1750-1846)
and his wife Isabella (1768-1833). These lands
are now encircled by the Fundy Trail Parkway between St. Martins and Hopwell
Cape which the New Brunswick gov't is
developing. William and Elizabeth McCoy spawned a family of six children,
two daughters and four sons. The oldest and
youngest were daughters, Ann Louisa
and Mary E., the sons William, John Abner and Thomas completed the family.
to help others with their family research.
E. Bruce Fones at: bfones@fones.org
England and English Fones (Fownes)
families. So far this information has eluded me. I also want
to keep working with Fones (Fownes)
families that originated from New England, Virginia and Canada
to find their roots. It
has taken over 20 years to obtain the data I now have and I will share
openly.
the "Fones Family Genealogy Forum"
at: http://genforum.familytreemaker.com/fones/
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec?htx=board&r=an&p=surnames.fones/
USGenWeb Project
L.D.S.
Family Search
Find a Grave
Please E-mail me
what we regard as
unimportant information is enough to help others who are looking for their
roots. Lets work
together and share
what knowledge we have to help others and our later generations be able
to know their
families history.
bfones@fones.org