Welcome to the Fones (Fownes) Family Web Site
Fones
(Fownes) Arms From England Fones
(Fownes) Arms From Ireland
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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. 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
name of "Fionn", which
means fair.
Celtic Languages
Celtic is a subfamily of the Indo-European
family of languages, At one time during the Hellenistic
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).
Continetal Celtic
/ Gaulish
Continental Celtic, which includes all
Celtic Idioms on the Continent with the exception of Breton,
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).
The earliest record of the Fones (Fownes)
name is of a Sir William Fones, a Norman Knight who came over
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
Jill has provided some of her notes on
the Fones (Fownes) family in England and I've added them to the web
page.
They are in html format and
can viewed by clicking on the following link:
Jill Sothcott's Notes
The Fones (Fownes) Families of America
came from England in the 1600's and settled in New England and
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).
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
(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 Westmoreland County Museum
Anyone wanting to do family research
in the Northern Neck area should go to the Westmoreland County Museum
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 close to 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.
(Foneswood, VA. is only 5 miles
approx: 10 min's from the museum.)
Bruce Fones (left)
and Jim Fones (right) at Foneswood in Richmond County, VA. Sept. 1998
Jim Fones passed away September 30, 2007
(a great loss to all doing research on the Fones family)
Virginia
Data Available here on Line:
I have uploaded most
of the data I have on the Fones (Fownes) Families from the Northern Neck
of Virginia
so others
can view the data here on line. You will need to first click on "Fones
data available here on line"
listed below.
You will see a list of surnames included in the gedcom file. 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.
Fones
data available here on line. (updated May 17, 2008)
I've added some pictures
here I thought might be of interest to those who have ancestors from Westmoreland
County, Virginia.
Click on the link to view them
Westmoreland Pictures
Kentucky
Fones (Fawns) Information
The Fones (Fawns) Families of Kentucky
are descendents of John Fones who moved from Virginia to Bath County
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 VA. FONES data base
above
(Fones data available here on
line). The KY. data here is in Windows Notepad format so anyone
using a windows
based OS can view it. Here
is the link for the KY. data only (updated May 17, 2008):
KY. Fones
(Fawns) data
Tennessee
Fones Family Information
I have just
started doing a study of the Fones families of Tennessee. I believe
they are descended from the Fones
families
of Virginia but as of yet I can’t tie these two groups together.
As you look at the data I now have and
find
that you have information that could be added or if there are corrections
to be made please contact me.
Bruce
Fones, bfones@fones.org
The TN. data
here is in Windows Notepad Format so anyone using a windows based OS can
view it.
Here
is the link for the TN. data only (updated April. 02, 2008)
TN. Fones Data
(Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont,
Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut)
While doing research on the Fones from
Virginia I have had contact with many folks doing research on
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 data 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
The Fownes Family In
Canada
The first known Fownes to arrive n Canada
is believed to be William Fownes (known as William Fownes the
loyalist.
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. Recent
information,
extracted by Allen C. Fownes from 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. This information
verifies earlier
findings of
Robert F. Fownes. Another source (William Tufts) maintains that his
family settled about five miles
east of William
Fownes at about 1800 at St. Martins. 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 in
my possession, 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
Esabel (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 sex 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. Anyone doing
research on these families
should contact Anita
Fownes who provided the above information.
I believe she has the largest data base
concerning
these families at this time. Her Email address is: cmpr5hol@telus.net
Further Ongoing
Research:
One of my goals is to locate records
that will document the connection between the VA., New
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.
Persons doing research on the Fones (Fownes)
family might also want to review the postings on
the "Fones Family Genealogy Forum
" webpage at: http://genforum.familytreemaker.com/fones/
Also the "Fones
Surname Message Board" at:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec?htx=board&r=an&p=surnames.fones/
Some Outstanding
Free Genealogy sites On The Web
Cyndi's
List of Genealogy Sites
USGenWeb Project
L.D.S.
Family Search
Please E-mail me
If you have any information
(even if only a little) on any branch of these families please contact
me. Sometimes
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.
E. Bruce Fones
bfones@fones.org