Following an Old, Old Path... Dalton

I'm beginning to feel a little trepidation about finding my Irish roots! My grandfather told me that James Hamilton Cummons "came from Ireland". Not so. He was born in North Carolina.

My mom's family, well, they are Malones, and the only thing that could make that surname MORE Irish would be to stick an O' in front of it... but the trail runs cold with Richard Malone, who being an American frontiersman(1790-1841), didn't have much to do with census records, or other things which could reveal the names of his parents to us, and possibly take us to the old country.

My great aunt Darlene (she's my paternal grandmother's sister) told me about HER great grandparents, John Tanner Tomblin and Isabelle Dalton. "Isabelle", my aunt said, "came from Ireland!"

Super! An Irish connection!

So, last night, I sit down on Ancestry.com (yeah, my free 14 days they gave me for being away so long ran out before I was satisfied, so I bought another month's access)and began clicking on the trail of leaves ("hints" on ancestry)taking me down the path of Isabelle (1838-1920) and her ancestors. Wow! Someone (or several people) had really done their homework on these Daltons! I just kept clicking, and clicking, and clicking... about two hours worth of clicking, only to discover...

Isabelle was born in Virginia. As was her father. And her father's father. And so on and so on, until the year 1666, when one William Dalton was born in.... Yorkshire, England. Really? Even when I get an ancestor who crossed the big pond, they can't do it from Ireland? *sigh*

But I have to admit, this line was fascinating! With time for nothing more than adding names and spouses, I followed this line, too interested to watch The Biggest Loser. Or Parenthood. Or the late night news. I kept clicking until the trail ran cold with a man just listed on ancestry as "Dalton" in the year 1210.

No, that is not a typo. The year One thousand, two hundred ten. What family keeps records that can be traced that far? There had to be something special about these Daltons. Nobility maybe? It looks like I may need to spend a little time looking into the name, and the stories behind it.

But, still no Ireland.