Irish John Smith Family Archives
Introduction:
The following information describes the best information we have concerning the Irish John Smith family. It includes family lore and actual information we were able to uncover in our research. I remember listening to Frank Ryan talk about his side of the family. I remember hearing stories told by dad concerning his side of the family. Mom was not as interested. She once told me if you look back far enough each family has its own share of horse thieves. Most of our family history has been lost with the passage of time. We write these words down so those who came before us will not be forgotten.
John Smith was known as ‘Irish John Smith’ or ‘Honest Irish John Smith’. How many of us asked our father these same questions? Why was ‘John Smith’ called ‘Honest Irish John Smith’? Was there another John Smith living in the area? Was the other John Smith dishonest? He was called ‘Irish’ John Smith because he was ‘Irish through and through’. His grandson, John W. Smith, would say to his own children, “Thank God you were born Irish!”
This essay should not be considered the final say for the Honest Irish John Smith family story. We expect this document to evolve as we uncover new information. Please let us know if you have any new information we can add as we will gladly explore other family lore stories. What you see contained here is from researching our family tree. Any speculation or theory is listed as such.
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The Honest Irish John Smith family
Family Lore:
1) The Smiths were previously known as Smyth. Before this they were known as MacGowan.
2) This tale was told by Pete Smith to our father when he was a young lad. We were once MacGowans and not Smiths. A long time ago one of our ancestors shot a British Captain (Major or General depending on the number of drinks the story teller had) and killed him. He hid in the Irish bogs for almost two years evading British authorities as he had a price on his head. This ancestor had a good friend by the name of ‘Johnnie John Smyth' and he used this name to sneak passage aboard ship heading to America. For fear of being caught this ancestor never used his original surname of 'MacGowan', and 'Americanized' the spelling of 'Smyth' to 'Smith'. That is the story of how we became Smiths.
3) Irish John Smith enlisted in the Wisconsin 29th Regiment at age 15 or 16 during the American Civil War.
Reality…
1) It is true that the Smith name in Ireland once was known as MacGowan. In the 10th century, Ireland was the first country in Western Europe to adopt a system of hereditary surnames. Before this you were identified by your Christian name with description of location, feat or skill. Also customary was to name everyone in the tribe after the founder of the tribe. In 1465 an Act of Parliament forced the Irish living within the Irish Pale, the area around Dublin, to take an English surname. In this way the MacGowan became known as Smith. The Smith and MacGowan family crests are very similar. The only difference is that the arm, hand and torch are larger in the Smith clan, which signifies that the Smith clan is the larger group.
This Act of Parliament was seen as a way of anglicizing the Irish into the mainstream culture. It was decreed that every Irishman dwelling among Englishmen, in the Counties of Dublin, Meath, Louth and Kildare "shall go like to one Englishman in apparel, and shaving off his beard above the mouth, and shall be within one year sworn the liege man of the King, and shall take to him an English surname of one town, as Sutton, Chester, Trim, Scrine, Cork, Kinsale; or colour, as white, black, brown; or art or science, as smith or carpenter; or office as cook, butler, &c., and he and his issue shall use this name under pain of forfeiting his goods yearly."
2) Did one of our ancestors really kill a British officer? Who knows? For the early Irish who came to the USA during the Irish Famine there was no love lost between them and the English. This tale is probably a result of wishful thinking, but as with all old family tales there may be some hint of truth also.
Although there were a number of uprisings against the landlord class, one particular case generated a lot of attention in its time. On a cool November evening Major Denis Mahon was killed by outraged tenants. Mahon evicted 8,000 tenants from his lands and sent 2,000 of them overseas on overcrowded ‘coffin ships’. Coffin ships had high casualty rates, and less than 50% survived travel on Mahon’s ships. The court tried and convicted two men who were hung for this crime. Additionally, the court declared there were other unnamed conspirators who took part in this murder.
News of his murder spread throughout Ireland and inspired many to take action against their landlords. Only a few more murders were reported; however, from that point on many landowners barricaded themselves in their estates.
Perhaps our family story is based on one of these incidents. Because the landlords were so hated, any Irishman who killed a landlord would have been held in high esteem. Our family story says a relative killed a British Captain. In earlier times the term ‘Captain’ was used by the Irish to indicate someone of importance and not necessarily someone of military rank.
3) Irish John's age was a subject of interest throughout his life. He never did know how old he was. In 1862 when he volunteered for military service he stated his age as 19. Throughout his life he indicated his birth year as being anywhere from 1841 to 1846. If 1846 was his birth year then he would have been 16 years old at the time when he volunteered with the Wisconsin Regiment. At one point he asked his mother what year he was born. She did not know the year; however, she thought he was born about the same year as one of his female cousins in Ireland. So Irish John contacted this female cousin who then told him her birth year was 1841. That is the year you see on his tombstone. He was never convinced that 1841 was correct and believed he was born much later. In the early 1900's Irish John traveled to Ireland and went to the old church where he heard he was baptized. He could not find his old records there, and it is possible they were destroyed at an earlier time. The British destroyed most of the 19th century Irish records and any that remained were shipped off to Dublin.
Irish John was not the only one to suffer confusion over his age. Other relatives had the same problem as you will see later.