I have just noticed, on another forum, that I wrote, in 2008, about the Sweny and Swiny families, that they were related, and that our earliest verified Swe(e)ny ancestor, Owen Sweeny of Mill St, Newmarket, Dublin, was the son of Revd. Miles Swyny or Swiney of Wexford.
As we now know that this is not true, my reaction was to send in a reply to correct this mistake, but there was a notice that the topic was now closed, and a warning from the moderator, not to try to ‘resurrect’ the thread.
The source of the error was a pedigree held by the old Office of Arms, Dublin.
Later I obtained the pedigree of the Dublin Swenys held by the Society of Genealogists, London, which has the sub-text:
“Incorrectly claiming descent from Revd. Miles Swiny of Ballyteigue, Co. Wexford (d.1690). The only relationship with that family being by the marriage in 1774 of Michael Sweny of Dublin with Mary, eldest daughter of the Revd. Shapland Swiny of Ballyteigue & Rector of Ferns, Co. Wexford.” (Shapland was a great grandson of Revd. Miles)
It seems that someone had confused ‘our’ Owen Sweeny 1680-1741 with Owen Swiney, second son of Revd. Miles, who lived from 1676 to 1754, and was a theatre and opera impressario. There is an entry for him in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. After some correspondence with the ODNB, I ascertained that Owen Sweeny and Owen Swiney were two distinct persons. At the time ‘our’ Owen Sweeny’s children were born in Dublin, the impressario was living in Italy. He died unmarried and without issue, leaving estates in Wexford.
But I still believe that there was an earlier connection between the two families.
