Irish surname maps

Howard Mathieson, the surname mapping expert in the Guild of One-Name Studies, has been experimenting with a new mapping service. I was one of the guinea pigs who tested his new service and he has very kindly provided me with some maps showing the distribution of the surname Cruise in Ireland using data extracted from Griffith's Valuation 1847-1864. You will need to click on the maps to enlarge them and to see the fine detail. The first map shows the distribution of the Cruise surname with a backdrop of an historic map of Ireland. There are two distinct clusters of the surname with one cluster in Dublin and another around Galway Bay in County Mayo and County Clare. Some Cruise researchers with ancestors from western Ireland have stories that their ancestor was a Spaniard by the name of Dal a Cruze who was shipwrecked off County Clare after the Spanish Armada. The surname was then supposedly anglicised to Cruise. There is a place in County Clare by the name of Spanish Point where the survivors from the wrecked Spanish ships came into land in 1588, but it seems that they were all executed by Sir Turlough O'Brien of Liscannor and Boethius Clancy, the High Sheriff of County Clare. I suspect there is little truth in the story of a Spanish origin but would be happy to be proved wrong. The Cruises in the Dublin area are of Anglo-Norman origin. They arrived in Ireland around the time of the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169.

The second map below shows the distribution of the Cruise surname with the pins overlaid on a physical map of Ireland.

The final map below shows a close up of the distribution of the surname in Dublin.

Howard is now offering a bespoke surname mapping service. He is able to produce maps for England and Wales, Scotland, Ireland and the United States. Howard can generate maps using his own datasets or he can generate maps from your own data. You can read more about this new service on Howard's Surname Origins website.

© Debbie Kennett 2012

Maps © Howard Mathieson and Surname Origins 2012