Fones

The Guestbook was just restarted November 1, 2012. name of "Fionn", which means fair. Celtic is a subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages, At one time during the Hellenistic is made up of three groups of languages: the Continental, the Brythonic (also called Bitish), and Continental Celtic, which includes all Celtic Idioms on the Contine... nt with the exception of Breton, The earliest record of the Fones (Fownes) name is of a Sir William Fones, a Knight who came over with with William the Conqueror in 1066. The Normans were commonly believed to be of French origin but, more accurately, were of Viking origin. The Vikings, under their Jarl, Thorfinn Rollo, invaded France in about 911 A.D.. After Rollo laid siege to Paris, The French King, Charles the Simple, finally conceced defeat, granting Northern William Fones, Knight settled in a place called Saxby, where his descendants lived for many centuries. Other early records are of a petrus (Peter) Fonne, of Nottinghamshire, about the year 1292, those of Peter Le Ffoon, whose name appears in the Close Rolls of the time of King Edward III, circa 1331, and those of Willelmus (William) Fones, who was living in Yorkshire in the year 1379. From approx: the 1500's into the 1700's Fones (Fownes) families could be found in the Devonshire, Worcestershire and London areas of England. Some spellings of the name through early English history are: as it sounded to them. Examples are, Fauns, Fawns, Foanes, Foans, Fones, Fons and Fownes. I have found direct connections were all these spellings were used, the most common are Fones and Fownes. Today the two areas of the U.S.A. that have the largest concentration of Fones (Fownes) families are the Mid-Atlantic and West Coast States. There were only approx: 374 Fones, 29 Fownes in the U.S.A. that had listed phone numbers (1997) The Fones (Fownes) families that settled in the Tide Water area of VA., in the counties of Richmond and from the late 1700's. There are Fones (Fawns) in KY. whose ancestors left VA. after the ...Read More