Are the Desmonds descended from the Earls? Volunteers needed.
For about twenty years now, I've been doing research to try to prove that people with the surname "Desmond" are descended from the Earls of Desmond. Contrary to what compilers of surname dictionaries, like Woulfe, MacLysaght, and O Murchada would have you believe, there is no real evidence that there was ever an Irish sept called "Ui Dheasmhumnaigh." All the evidence points to the Irish origins of the name "Desmond" being with the families of the Earls of Desmond in the 14th century. The Earls of Desmond used the surname Desmond from, perhaps, as early as the 4th (3rd) Earl, Gearoid Iarla, who died in 1398. Their contemporaries, both English and Irish, referred to them by this name, as evidenced by the State Papers and other documents. They signed their names, nearly always, "Desmond" and not "FitzGerald." It is, also, a myth that there were no male descendants of the Earls left after 1632. There were descendants, both legitimate and illegitimate living after that, and their descendants are living today. I believe that many Desmonds are descended from them.But I have, so far, been unable to trace anyone living today named "Desmond," generation by generation, back to the Earls.
The problem is that there's a gap in the records for all of the 17th and the first half of the 18th centuries. Many records were destroyed and then there were the "Penal Laws" that forebade Catholics from keeping birth, death, and marriage records. After all my years of research, I've come to believe that the only way to show that the Desmonds really are descended from the Earl's, as the tradition that's in most of our families says, is through DNA testing.
And so, I'm asking for your help in settling this once and for all. There's a Desmond DNA project that has as it's goal determining the origins of the Desmonds. Some testing has been done, but many more participants are needed. Won't you please help us, by becoming a participant? There is a fee, but you'll also get information that will help you in your own genealogical research. If you're interested, or just want to find out more, the project is at http://www.familytreedna.com/public/desmond/default.aspxhttp://www.familytreedna.com/public/desmond/default.aspx
Thank you for your support.
Des
(William Desmond)