Hello,
I've been researching my Dillons (my male line) for several years, my Dillons came over from Ireland to move to Manchester in around the 1820s/30s and my most distant Dillon ancestor I have been able to find is a Patrick Dillon born in around the late 1700s who had two sons that I am aware of, Luke and Patrick who later both moved to Manchester.
I have spent a long time with my Dillons only stating "Ireland" as a place of birth. Recently though I found a family of Dillons in Manchester who I believe are related to "my lot", I'm about 80% sure but not certain and so I've not added them to my tree yet. This family stated their place of birth to be Mayo.
I cannot find the evidence to make this link absolutely concrete and I think that the only way I could do this would be through DNA testing. I have Y-DNA tested my self to 111 markers and have no matches at all with the exception of a few false positive 12 marker matches. It would be great to get in touch with some Mayo Dillons to see if there are any similarities with our paper research and to possibly get them to DNA test to see if we match.
Another piece of circumstancial evidence for my Dillons coming from Mayo is that the name "Luke Dillon" is very common in my tree but seems to be pretty unsual anywhere else, I made a little name distribution map for "Luke Dillons" from Irish birth indexes using John Grenham's website and it seemed to show quite a strong bias towards the Mayo and Galway area. This is of course hardly strong evidence but it does add a little weight to the family of Mayo Dillons that I believe I a related to.
One thing that I should have mentioned is that I have of course looked through Irish RC registers online but with no luck, I presume that they do not start early enough since Patrick was born in the late 1700s and his sons Luke and Patrick were born in the 1810s and 20s.
Deer243
Wednesday 24th Aug 2016, 10:32AMMessage Board Replies
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Deer243:
Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out!
The surname Dillon was fairly common in Ireland in the 19th century and found in almost every county. There were over 1000 Dillons listed in the Griffiths Valuation conducted mid 19th century. Roscommon, Dublin, May and Galway as you pointed out was where the name was most prevalent.
Many of the RC parishes in Mayo start later than your time period which would explain why you have not found records.
The Y-DNA test if you eventually get a strong match will help point out where your family may have lived in the 1700s. If you have not done so already, you may also want to consider the autosomal DNA test which will track all parts of your paternal line but also your maternal line. The matches you get may give you clues where your family was from.
Roger McDonnell
Castlemore Roscommon, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘
Wednesday 24th Aug 2016, 07:10PM -
Thanks for the reply Roger, I ordered a Family Finder test last week and am estimate to get the results in October. Hopefully, I might find a match although I'm not that optimistic since my common ancestor with any match would have to be back in at least the 1700s which will probably be hard to detect.
At the moment I'm trying to find some Mayo Dillons doing family tree research that I can try and persuade to Y-DNA test to see if that might give me a match.
Deer243
Wednesday 24th Aug 2016, 07:38PM -
Deer243: HI!
Totally know what u mean. I have a few Dillons in my tree, a line orig from Galway. And even when Galway is supposed to had been a common place for Dillons, I can't seem to make progress about this Galway line. In fact, some info is confusing (my great grand parent would had been born half an hour from my great g uncle would had, u'd think that'd give me more possibilities to search, but so far it hasn't.
Note. The one on the wiki link is my great g uncle, as was a dean and of course no offspring.
My great granpa was his brother, John Stephen Dillon, who had both migrated to the americas (Argentinas)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Joseph_Dillon
Jes Dillon
Sunday 31st May 2020, 11:43PM -
Hi, My Dillon's came from Strade, Mayo. I have had Ancestry DNA done (rlevi) and uploaded to Gedmatch and FamilytreeDNA. From Ancestry I have found 2 third cousins. Our gggf was Edward Dillon born 1822 in Westmeath and settled in Strade, siblings Garret, Thomas and Margaret that we have found. It seems there were several lines, one wealthy related to Viscount Dillon and my line who were farmers.
Looking forward to seeing if we are a match.Regards Robyn
RGregg1
Monday 1st Jun 2020, 10:15PM -
My Dillons come from Ballaghadereen. Bridget Dillon married James Henry Casey,, immigrated to Minnesota and is buried here. She was born in 1860. Not sure who her parents were.
Pbrehm0201
Tuesday 2nd Jun 2020, 03:58AM -
Thanks everyone for helping Deer243 with his Dillons from Mayo. As you can see, there are certainly plenty of Dillons to research.
Many thanks to JesDillon for the profile information about Fr Patrick Joseph Dillon.
If anyone has any further questions, please let us know.
Kind regards,
Jane
Jane Halloran Ryan
Tuesday 2nd Jun 2020, 10:08AM -
Hello! My dillons are from Kilbeagh (mayo). John Dillon married elizabeth (bessie) Phillips. They had children, one named patrick. This patrick was born about 1870
Stephanie
Thursday 14th Sep 2023, 11:56PM