As you probably know the IRONS family surname is one that goes very far back in time to the earliest days when Europeans first came here to colonize America. Because of this, today there are many people currently living in America who carry this name and many more others who are descendants of some of these early colonists.
The purpose of the IRONS Family DNA Project is to use modern science to learn more about our common ancestors and to find out if any previously unproven or unknown relationships exist between the various family lines carrying the IRONS family surname.
Following is some genealogical information about five different branches of the IRONS family which I have identified and pulled together here for your convenience. Also, a bit further below, you will find more details about the DNA project and how you can participate. Please read on!
The New
Jersey IRONS family line starts with a James IRONS (born about
1690 -- place unknown and died 1761/62) who in 1714 purchased land in Monmouth
County, New Jersey and was later married to Martha Birdsall, Esther Harbort (or
Herbert), and Deborah Brewer.
The Rhode
Island Irons family line is generally believed to have started with
a Samuel IRONS who lived in and around Providence, Rhode Island in
the late 1600’s to early 1700’s and was married to Sarah WHIPPLE in 1709.
This Samuel IRONS is also generally believed to be the son of Matthew
IRONS who first immigrated from England to Boston as a member of the Winthrop
Fleet in 1630.
The Delaware Irons family line starts with a man named Simon HYRONS (IRONS). He lived in Kent County Delaware (at that time, part of Pennsylvania) and served three terms in the Pennsylvania Assembly (1683, 1692, and 1695). It is also believed that he was the same “Symon Iron” who first migrated to Nansemon County, Virginia, in April 1653, and then purchased 400 acres of land the following December in the Isle of Wight County. Because of the dates on these various records, there is some possibility he might have been related to either the Rhode Island or New Jersey IRONS families. However, so far no documents linking these families has been located and we have yet to identify or recruit a DNA Project participant who can trace back to this fellow. Hopefully at some point this will change.
The Ohio Irons family line starts with a man named David IRONS who first migrated and appeared in Ohio during the early 1800’s.
The Tennessee
Irons family line starts with a man named Edward IRONS (born
about 1753 and died 1824) who first appeared in Tennessee and is believed
to have migrated from the New York Colony into Tennessee via the Cumberland
Gap sometime before the American Revolution.
Up until now, there has been much speculation that these various branches of the IRONS family are related; however there really is no documentation to support this. Now with a Y-Chromosome DNA test, we can find out.
The Y-Chromosome DNA test looks for genetic matches between males. When 2 individuals show the same identical or near identical results from this test, there is a 50% probability the two had a common male ancestor within 7 generations and a 90% chance of a common male ancestor within about 20 generations.
The chance that a match does not exist due to infidelity or unreported adoptions occurs 2%-5% of the time per generation. For families trying to do family reconstruction, it is considered prudent to test 2 different known male cousins from each different branch. Therefore, ideally, I would like to get at least 2 volunteers from each family line who can document their lineage.
The testing will be performed by Family Tree DNA who you can find on the web at http://www.familytreedna.com. You can find a reference to the IRONS DNA project on their website at: http://www.familytreedna.com/surname_join.asp?code=E48397&special=True&projecttype=S
There are two ways to participate. The first and easiest way is to send a small donation, which I will temporarily hold and later divide between the DNA donators to help defray the cost of having the test done. The second way is to step up to the plate and underwrite the cost of having your DNA tested.
If you want to participate as a DNA donor please go to the project website and enter a request to join. An email to me (the Project Coordinator) will be generated which I will then return to you. The email I return to you will contain an ID code, which will be attached to your test kit order so that the results can be correlated with results from other test participants. Also, please remember, this only works with direct male descendants.
Thanks,
Doug Meharry
Project Coordinator
Send ale to: doug AT discoveryvision DOT com
Other miscellaneous links of Interest:
More information on the New Jersey Irons line: The Irons Family in America (with notes on BALDWIN, BIRDSALL and BROWNE families)
List of 259 Irons Family graves in Rhode Island
The Clemence-Irons House in Rhode Island. See a good example of how our ancestors lived in the early 1700’s. Here is some other very good information on the Clemence family and how the Irons family is related.
Ohio Vital Records online: http://www.vitalrec.com/oh.html
Pennsylvania Online State Archives at: http://www.digitalarchives.state.pa.us/
Maryland Online State Archives at: http://www.mdarchives.state.md.us/megafile/msa/speccol/sc2900/sc2908/html/search.html
Descendants of Matthew Irons (family 1)
--- The Massachusetts Branch
(top)
Matthew1 IRONS (variously spelled Iyans, Ijons, Ines, Ijons, Oyern etc.) was probably born between 1610 and 1615 in Roxwell, Essex, England. It is generally accepted that he came to Boston, Massachusetts in 1630 with the Winthrop Fleet, which carried the city’s original founders. This would make him the first recorded colonist in America who carried the IRONS surname. When he first arrived, he was a servant of William COLBORN. On 20 April 1634 he was admitted to Boston Church and later on 25 May 1636 he was allowed to take the oath of a “Freeman.” The following year he was censured (along with 57 other leading citizens) for his endorsement of a Mr. Wheelright who was ultimately convicted of sedition and banished from Boston for his preaching of religious opinions that diverged from those of the Boston Church leaders. This episode in Boston’s early history is known as the “Antinomian troubles.” In 1637 he also received a grant of land which is probably the same land which he left to his children when he passed on. In his will and various other records indicate this land was Lot #21 located near the corner of South and Summer Streets (still in present day Boston). It was a narrow strip of land that ran between South Street and the then shoreline. On one side it was bounded by Lots #19 and #20 belonging to Nicholas BAXTER and Edward (or Edmund) BROWNE (who is most likely the brother of his wife Anne). On the other side, his land was bounded by Lot #22 belonging to a William LEATHERLAND. On 8 January 1638, Matthew, Edward BROWNE and a number of other town men were also allocated land along the Muddy River. A final record of interest shows that on 29 January 1655 he was approved to keep a house of public entertainment (this was probably the “brew house” mentioned in his will).
Matthew1
IRONS, born about 1610-15 in England
and died April 1661 in Boston, Mass.
Married Anne BROWNE who was born about 1620 in England and died between
June 1655 and January 1661 in Boston.
Children of Matthew1 IRONS and Anne BROWNE were:
|
|--- John2 (Matthew1), born 16 July 1638 in Boston and died about 1676. Married Elizabeth (DOB and DOD unknown). Mentioned in Matthew’s will as “eldest son.”
|
|--- Edmund3 (John2, Matthew1), born 27 January 1674 in Boston. DOD unknown.
|
|--- Elizabeth2 (Matthew1), born 5 February 1641 and died after January 1661. Married Richard Randall(DOB and DOD unknown). Mentioned in Matthew’s will.
|
|--- Thomas2 (Matthew1), born 18 April 1643 and died after Sept. 1677. Mentioned in Matthew’s will.
|
|--- Rebecca2 (Matthew1), born 26 December 1644 and died after 1655. Married to Francis Thomas in about 1664. Mentioned in Matthew’s will.
|
|--- First Child born about 1665 in Boston. Name unknown.
|
|
|--- Samuel2 (Matthew1), born November 1650 in Boston and died 25 Sept. 1690/91 in Braintree, Massachusetts or Providence, Rhode Island (according to some other records). Married SARAH BELCHER on 13 Sept. 1677. Sarah BELCHER was born 27 April 1656 and died 22 August 1693. It is believed that this Samuel is the father of the Samuel IRONS of Providence Rhode Island. This Samuel(b. 1650) is also mentioned in his father’s will as “youngest son.”
|
|--- Ruth3 (Samuel2, Matthew1), born 16 November 1678 in Braintree, Mass. (only documented child of Samuel and Sarah Belcher Irons).
|
|--- Samuel
|
|
|--- Mathias2 (Matthew1), born 1646/47 in Boston and died as child on 13 May 1656 in Boston.
|
|--- Edward2 (Matthew1), born 11 February 1648/49 in Boston and probably died as a child.
|
|--- Anne2 (Matthew1), born January or February 1651/52 and probably died as a child before 1654.
|
|--- William2 (Matthew1), born 1653 and died as child on 1 Nov. 1654.
|
|--- Anne2 (Matthew1), born 6 June 1654 in Boston and died the following month on 26 July 1654.
|
|--- Catherine2 (Matthew1), born 1 June 1655 in Boston and died as a child before 1661.
Other
notes and miscellaneous un-reconciled records (top):
The 1880 Census for
Burrillville, Providence, Rhode Island shows a 50 year old “widowed” Charles
Irons born about 1830 in Rhode Island and whose parents were also both born in
Rhode Island. This record can be found
on NA Film Number T9-1214 page 34A.
The following regarding John IRONS was transcribed (by John Davis) from a collection of biographies in a book titled: “1880 History of Keokuk County, Iowa.” This IRONS apparently lived in “Adams Township of Keokuk County.”
IRONS, John farmer, Sec. 22. P. O. Keswick; born in Allegheny, county Maryland, April 19, 1811; he was there raised and when twenty three years of age he engaged in the lumber business on the Monongahela river, and continued it for about fourteen years; he then went to West Virginia and in 1849, returned to Maryland; in 1853 he came to Keokuk county, where he now lives; he entered 200, acres of his farm, which now Is well improved; he at one time owned 600 hundred acres, but has since divided a large portion among his children; he sold forty acres, upon which the town of Keswick in now being built; December 13, 1833, he married Miss Margaret Powell; she is a native of West Virginia, and was born April 24, 1813; by this union they have eight children: Joseph, Nancy A., Charles, William, Levi, Margaret, Warren C. and Alice V.; lost six: Catherine, James B., Allen, two infants and John, who was a member of Company H. Thirty Third Iowa Volunteer Infantry; served until his term of service expired, and was discharged at Davenport, in 1865; on his way home he was killed by the cars breaking through a bridge; Mr. and Mrs. Irons commenced their marred life without means; their furniture and wearing apparel were made by themselves; the linen for the latter was raised, prepared and manufactured with their own hands, and some of the garments then made are preserved as mementos of their early married life; and among the early settlers who have passed the ordeal of pioneer life, none is deserving of more especial notice than the subject of this sketch; by industry, economy and honesty, they have acquired a competency for their declining years.
William IRONS married Patia GREEN on 16 August 1846 in Killingly, Windham, Connecticut. No known children.
Samuel A. IRONS, DOB and DOB unknown. Married to Ann. Son Frank Anthony IRONS born 11 November 1848 at Johnston, Providence, Rhode Island.
References (top):
1. FamilySearch.org website database.
2. Smith, Grant and Irons Families of New Jersey’s Shore Counties, Including the Related Families of Willets and Birdsall, compiled by James W. Hook, New Haven, Connecticut, 1955. Pages 174-219.
3. Lawmaking and Legislators in Pennsylvania, A Biographical Dictionary, Vol. One 1682-1709, Craig W. Horle et. al., Published by the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 1991. Pages 434-435.
4. Talbot County Land Records (Delaware), 1665-72, p. 335-38; Scordas, 251 lists Simon, Dorothy, Elizabeth, Francis, Susanna, and William “Irons.” In 1682 Simon Hirons had land granted to his three children, Elizabeth, Francis, and Simon; therefore Susanna and William Irons cannot be identified with certainty. Note: This reference is referred to in item 3 above and may provide further information regarding the children of Simon Irons.
5. The Quaker Records of Shrewsbury, N.J., by J.E. Stillwell, M.D., New York City.
6. History of Christ Church, Shrewsbury, N.J.
7. The Town Book of Old Middletown, N.J.
8. This Old Monmouth of Ours, William S. Horner, published by Moreau Brothers of Freehold, New Jersey, 1932.
9. Old Times in Old Monmouth, Historical Reminiscences of Old Monmouth County, New Jersey, by Edwin Salter and George C. Beekman, published by the Monmouth Democrat, Freehold, N.J. 1887.
10. Query by a W.R. Cutter that was first published in the NEHG Register, Volume 32, July 1878, pages 342-3. Following is the first part of the lengthy query:
I have in my possession a deed – never executed – from John Seers, of Woburn, Mass., dated the 14th of 9th mo. 1670, selling for L5. 10s., five acres of land in Woburn, at a place called “pine meddow plaine,” and bounded by land of John Russell east, and by land of Edward Oyron (Iron) west. This Iron is interesting from the fact of his being the first Woburn town pauper. The name is evidently Iron, and not Ivons, as given in Sewall’s history of the town, page 617. I have also a deed of John Johnson, Sen., of the same town, of Lawrence’s lot in Woburn, to Richard Neverds, of Cape Ann, dated March 8, 1687-8. The lot formerly belonged to John Lawrence, of Charlestown, who was then deceased. The deed contains the signature of John Johnson, Sen., and the mark of Bethiah Johnson his wife, and the signatures of James Convers and Henry Somars, as witnesses, both well-known citizens of Woburn. Also have a quit-claim from Jonathan Bacon, of Billerica, to Richard Nevers, of Woburn, A.D. 1708; of “Thomas Kendall, Senr. His Deed of Exchange to Richard Neverds,” A.D. 1708-9, in which the lot of five acres, which formerly belonged to John Seers, at the place called Pine Meadow Plain, is exchanged for four acres of woodlot that formerly belonged to Kendall’s “honored father” Francis Kendall, late of “said Woobourn,” deceased. Iron’s name is Edward “Ioyerns” in this deed. Note: Woburn is less than 10 miles north east of downtown Boston.
11. Drakes History and Antiquities of Boston, pages: 218-30, 235, 341, 798.
12. History of Monmouth County, New Jersey 1664-1920, Volume One, Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc. New York and Chicago, 1922. p. 340, 344.
13. Report of the Record of Commissioners, of the City of Boston (first and second parts covering 1660-1701) Boston Records and The Book of Possessions, Rockwell and Churchill, City Printers, 1881/82.
14. Planters of the Commonwealth 1620-1640.
Compiled by Doug Meharry. Copyrightã2003-2006,
by Doug Meharry, All rights reserved.