Descendants of Bryan Fitzpatrick, Lord and First Baron of Upper Ossory

Steve Zalewski and Ronan Fitzpatrick are pleased to announce the publication of their book Descendants of Bryan Fitzpatrick, Lord and First Baron of Upper Ossory. The book contains a genealogical roll of descendants of Bryan Fitzpatrick to the fifteenth generation (1485-2000) and includes biographical notes and extensive research sources.

The Mac Giolla Phádraigs did not leave great records and this unfortunate fact makes the genealogist's efforts that much more difficult. While the principal Mac Giolla Phádraig descent can be traced for over 2000 years, the shortage of records means that we only get occasional glimpses of the genealogical details of this ancient Irish family. Because these records are distributed in many archives and libraries there is a need for one composite compilation and especially one that researches the individuals from a genealogical perspective. This book addresses these needs.

Our collaborative aim was to prepare a comprehensive genealogical register of the male descendants of Bryan Mac Giolla Phádraig, Lord and First Baron of Upper Ossory in order to ultimately identify The Fitzpatrick, chief of his name. By "genealogical" we mean an individual's name, parent's names, dates and places of birth, marriage, death and burial, as well as names of spouses and children. We have endeavored to record everything we have discovered.

As the book progressed we identified conflicts between previously published sources acknowledged to be reliable and the evidence that we were unearthing in original manuscripts. So, in many instances our work completely updates previous understanding of the genealogical facts. The book also provided us with an opportunity to extend previous publications so as to include details of individuals to 2000AD. The result is a charted and documented 500-year Fitzpatrick genealogy and we believe that this is the first time that this has been achieved.

The research starts with Bryan Mac Giolla Phádraig and among his descendants we trace Barons, Lords, Ladies, Earls, Knights, Viscounts, Princes and Princesses, Counts and Countesses. The descendants also include doctors, clergymen and some with military careers. But the majority are individuals about whom there is little recorded apart for their genealogical details. The work does not purport to be a complete roll of all the descendants of Bryan. We have included male descendants of all liaisons that the research unearthed and have traced these for as many descendant generations as the sources permit. We have also included female lines but because of the huge numbers of descendants we have discovered, we have limited these to the first generation of the female's descendants. On-going research has identified significant lines that are not recorded in previous publications, but how they connect to Bryan's line is still unknown. Some of these lines are based on oral history and some are substantiated by evidence of land ownership and burial places. In all of these cases the descent is waiting to be discovered in some library, archive or church register. These lines have failed to make it into this publication because of a rigorous attitude to documenting descent.

Overview of Contents

1. Bryan Fitzpatrick (Lord and 1st Baron of Upper Ossory)

The primary report format used to list the descendants of Bryan Fitzpatrick is the Modified Register System. This format lists descendants by generation and has been used by the National Genealogical Society since 1912. It was based on the Register System developed by the New England Historic Genealogical Society in 1870. (The starting individual is Bryan Fitzpatrick, Lord and First Baron of Upper Ossory).

2. Biographical Notes

Biographical Notes related to individuals follow the primary report. The notes were transcribed to add a little color to an individual's life and may also contain references to the source where we found that color.

3. Citations

Citations for each name, event date and location in the primary report are documented and many citations contain literal extracts or notes contained in the source.

4. Sources

Our research involved a study of over 150 sources, which are located at over 15 repositories. These sources include wills, marriage licenses, birth and baptismal records, death records, personal papers, bible entries and similar primary sources. Without exception, our standard has been to include only individuals whose genealogical details can be traced through authoritative genealogical sources. Our guiding philosophy has been that our research must be repeatable by other researchers and to this end we have included all of our sources, fully cross-referenced to the various individuals. To further aid future researchers we have also included the library or archive where we have accessed these manuscripts together with their call numbers or shelf number.

5. Index of Persons

An alphabetical list of individuals in the Register, which contains nearly 600 individuals, is included for easy reference.

Orders and pricing

Sorry, the first edition has been sold out and is no longer available. If you’d like to be contacted when the second edition or printing is available, send me email at stevezal@escapees.com and I’ll keep you informed. Your email address will be used for no other purpose.

Descendancy Chart

A separate descendancy chart containing all of those contained in the book may also be found here.