The Irish Merediths
1 Bishop Meredith; 2 Rearymore; 3 Clonenagh; 4 Wicklow; 5 Kerry; 6 Sligo; 7 Carlow; 8 Armagh; 9 Down
Irish Meredith Genealogy
The aim of this website is to provide a comprehensive record of all Meredith families who settled in Ireland from earliest times up until the end of the 19th century. Additionally, it aims to trace the descendants of these families in Ireland and other countries. This project is ongoing, and new information will be regularly incorporated into the website.
The Meredith surname traces its origins to ancient Wales, where it was initially known as the first or given name ‘Maredudd’ within the Welsh patronymic system.1 Over time, it evolved into the English surname Meredith, with its adoption varying across different regions and families. Consequently, not all Welsh Merediths share a common ancestry due to the diverse origins of this surname. From Wales, the Merediths dispersed, initially to England and Ireland, and subsequently to various parts of the colonial world.
The distribution of the Meredith surname in Ireland was highly localized into distinct geographical regions. This pattern arose from the settlement of various families bearing the surname in different parts of the country at distinct periods. The family line with the earliest documented ancestry is that of Richard Meredith, who arrived in Ireland in 1584 as the chaplain to Sir John Perrott, the Lord Deputy, and appointed as Bishop of Leighlin in 1589.
Additional clusters emerged later in the counties of Sligo, Wicklow, Laois, Kerry, and Carlow, each with a distinct Meredith ancestor and lineage. These prominent family lines have a substantial number of descendants and are documented separately in the Family Line menu item at the top of each webpage.
The primary family lines are named on this website according to the county in which the earliest ancestor settled: Sligo, Wicklow, Kerry, and Carlow, except that
- Bishop Richard Meredith's line is named as that, and
- the Queen's County Merediths are split into two distinct branches called Rearymore and Clonenagh, the parishes of their earliest ancestors.
There are other Irish Meredith families who are not part of these major family lines, and for whom only a limited lineage is known. These are grouped together as "Other Family Lines". Individuals with no known lineage are also included in the website; their details need to be found through the Search facility.
Our current understanding of the Welsh origins of the Irish Meredith family lines and their potential relationships is presented in this Schematic Diagram. Documentary and Y-DNA evidence indicate a familial relationship between the Rearymore, Clonenagh, and Wicklow family lines, although their ancestral Welsh origin remains uncertain. They are not related to the other family lines that are also not related to each other. The only documentary evidence of Welsh origins pertains to the Bishop Meredith’s line (Denbighshire) and the Kerry line (Montgomeryshire). Note: pedigrees developed in the 19th century and still in circulation asserted that the Wicklow Meredith Family Line descended from Bishop Richard Meredith’s brother, John. However, these claims were refuted by the Ulster King of Arms.2 See the entry for William Rice Meredith for a transcription.
Details of how to explore the various features of this website can be found in the Site Navigation page , which also explains the meaning of various icons that are used. There is a link to the Site Navigation page at the foot of each page of the website.
Citations
- see Welsh surnames - Wikipedia
- Genealogical Office Manuscript no. 815, Miscellaneous search notes, Comments on "The Pedigree of the family of Meredith registered in Vol, XX pp64")