The Burke's Peerage World Book of Byrns (1994), with its flattering reference to 'The Old and Distinguished Byrn Family', identifies us (like all the rest of the BYRNEs) as descendants of BRAN but, whilst it gives a wealth of addresses for presentday BYRNs, there is no specific BYRN family history.

Much the same goes for Our Name in History: The BYRN Name (Ancestry.com, 2006).
(Click for a review of the book.)

When this page was first put on the web a decade ago, my point of departure was narrow — our particular family history. In the meantime however there has been an explosion of research into Byrne/ Burns/ O'Byrne clan history on two fronts:
on the documentary front Daniel Byrne-Rothwell has published two studies so far as part of a planned trilogy under the general title The Byrnes and the O'Byrnes, volume 1 is sub-titled A New Insight upon Irish History, and volume 2 is sub-titled A Social History of the Clan (both volumes appeared in 2010); this major undertaking provides an uptodate survey of all that is known about the clan: vol.1 to the 17th century, vol.2 to the present.
On the genetics front, a DNA project launched by two co-administrators in the USA, Nic Burns and Paul Burns, has attracted 234 participants to date. What they are discovering is of special interest to all who know that they are of Byrn(e) ancestry but are not clear how they fit in. Fascinating though this line of research is — as the administrators acknowledge — it can only complement (and at times certainly correct) what families have believed about their descent, but it cannot actually fill the holes in the historical record. http://www.familytreedna.com/public/Byrne/default.aspx

Developments since putting this page on the web:

• (10/2011) DNA tested! Having taken part in the Byrne/Burns/Beirne family DNA project, the main discovery for me is that our Byrn branch does indeed belong to the wider Leinster Byrne clan; we are not immigrant Scottish Borderers who adopted the name and spelling Byrn. Much more information should emerge in time. The project has two co-administrators: pabloburns@comcast.net and NicBurns44@hotmail.com
• (02/2009) In Australia Phillip Benstead, a descendant of Archdall Byrn's wife (she was Elizabeth Benstead) has done major work on Archdall Byrn's descendants. That account will be available soon.
• (09/2007) Added a review of "Our Name in History: The BYRN Name" (Ancestry.com, 2006).
• America has easily the largest number of Byrn families: upwards of 285 households and 750 individuals. My thanks to those who have got in touch. Special thanks to "Dreamer" for alerting me to the account of the Byrn graves in the Pioneer cemetery at Byrnville, Indiana, posted on USGENWEB by Sandi Evilsizer Koscak (of Byrn descent). I have now (09/2007) added a commentary on the Byrneville Cemetery document, but am little nearer to having a clear picture of Byrn family relationships in the USA. One Byrn line, I learn, has changed their name to BYRNS, another to BYRNE. Maybe we'll get some answers eventually.
• Incidentally, if you haven't visited the website of Anne Byrn "The Cake Mix Doctor" (Tennessee) , try it now: her chocolate cakes are all a knockout.
• Substantial progress has been made on the New Zealand and Australian branches of the descendants of Robert Byrn (c.1796-c.1855, Co.Carlow) — with full thanks to, respectively, a colateral fourth cousin in North Island and most recently (11/2009) another 4th cousin, plus an interested researcher from Brisbane and, more recently (04/2007), a Byrn descendant in New South Wales.
• (02/2007) A note on Robert's sister Augusta Burtchaell (née Byrn, c.1794-1867), with many thanks to a third cousin once removed in British Colombia.
• The Mulroney connection — a tale of contrasting family fortunes (Canada).
• Added the note below on spelling.
• For another webpage on O'Byrne family researches see Neil O'Byrne's homepage

During all the years I was growing up in Ireland on the borders of Dublin and Wicklow, there was never any doubt within our acquaintance that ours was the only family in the country that spelt its surname BYRN. There were, of course, thousands of BYRNEs and O'BYRNEs but, again, there was never any doubt in our minds that they were all (Roman) Catholics whereas we were Church of Ireland Protestants. We did not mix.

We BYRNs were not many. In my grandfather's generation there had been five BYRN brothers, of whom four married, but only two produced descendants in my generation. True, I did hear a tale about a family bust-up back in 1824, resulting in some BYRNs leaving the country, and in 1948 a distant relation in New Zealand got in touch, but by the 1950s nobody else in our acquaintance had any idea what had become of such other BYRNs, so, since our family were the only BYRNs in Ireland & England (as we thought), there was also a tacit assumption that we were the only BYRNs in the world. — Little did we know!

DNA testing has established that our BYRN family belonged to the Leinster branch of the great BYRNE/O'BYRNE clan, so we were once certainly Catholic. It must have been sometime early in the 18th century, and under pressure of the Penal Laws (though documentary confirmation for our family is lacking), that our particular branch conformed to the Church of England in Ireland and threw in its lot with the Protestant Ascendancy. I suspect, without being able to prove it, that it was then too that we dropped the final E from our surname to signal our conformity. But today of course, some 300 years later, Ireland has altered radically. The Protestant Ascendancy is a distant memory. The particular family property (at Leighlinbridge, Co Carlow) which those 18th century ancestors of ours had tried to preserve by conforming ceased to be the family home within four generations. It is hard now to imagine even my grandparents' generation in presentday Irish society.

Himself the son of a Church of Ireland clergyman, my grandfather (who, along with three of his brothers, was also ordained into the C. of I.), would have found it very difficult, for example, to imagine the following two developments which are but a small reflection of big socio-religious changes: in 1989 a Revd Matthew BYRNE was appointed Church of Ireland Dean of Kildare; and conversely, a presentday BYRN second cousin was recently received into the Roman Catholic Church. — What matters, plainly, is the Faith itself ("Jesus is Lord") and not the social group or particular denomination of one's birth.

But apart from general social changes, the biggest family eye-opener for us came when my uncle (who by now had also left Ireland for England) obtained a copy of The Burke's Peerage World Book of Byrns. It was no surprise to find no BYRNs listed in Ireland any more (our particular family had all gone to their rest, or emigrated), but it was a revelation to discover that in various parts of the English-speaking world there was a total estimated population of BYRNs amounting to 877 (some entries turn out to be duplicates, but even so ...). Most of these BYRNs — 770 — are in the United States, with a further 37 in Australia and 13 in New Zealand.
(And now, thanks to GOOGLE, I discover that I am not the only living RICHARD BYRN either — there are at least two others in the USA.)

When, I wonder, did their forefathers emigrate from Ireland? Are they descendants of the John Byrn who died in 1781, and/or of the James Byrn who died in 1824? (see Robert Byrn's descendants above)

And where amongst the BYRNs do the "J. and R. Byrn Printers of 18 Sycamore Alley, Dublin", active during the 1780s, fit in? (See their volume entitled The Beauties of Swift ).

Any answers will be received with great interest: contact.

note on the spelling BYRN / BYRNE

I have to observe that during the 18th and 19th centuries there was little fixity of spelling. My family was certainly using BYRN in the 18th century (e.g. in Charles Byrn's will of 1741), but even as late as 1882 the clerk who wrote out an indenture relating to Richard Archdall Byrn (1825-1896) reproduces his name once as Byrne (though Byrn is given on the outside and elsewhere within the document).
Further, an American correspondent lets me know that his Gr-gr-gr-gr-gr grandfather George Byrn (born 1708) came from Ireland to the USA where he had three children and they changed their spelling to Byrne at that time.
Another American correspondent retains the name but now spelt Byrns.
(To my regret I have not yet been able to establish relationship links.)

Arianne J. Walker
Benjamin Walker, and
Genevieve L. Walker
and of
James K. McPherson, and
Arianwen M. McPherson
and of
Ruairi C. Anthony, and
Callan F. Anthony

Honor Echo Byrn