Born: Feb. 3, 1981 Philadelphia, PA
Marital Status: single
Occupation: graduate student
Education:
2003 - current: Graduate Student
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia PA
1999 - 2003: St. Joseph's University
Philadelphia PA
BA's in History and English
Dean's List seven times
Interests:
History
Archeology
Writing
Reading
Genealogy
Family:
Father - Thomas Fitzsimmons
Born in 1950 in Philadelphia, PA.
Philadelphia Police Officer since 1972
Mother - Adele Murphy
Born in 1956 in Burlington, NJ
Housewife since 1973
Five brothers and one sister
Currently Reading:
Underworld by Graham Hancock
About the name Fitzsimmons:
Spelling variations include: Fitzsimmons, FitzSimon, FitzSimons, FitzKimmons, FitzKimmins, FitzSymons, Fitzsimmins, Fitzsymmons, Fitzkimmons, Fitzkimmins, Fitzsimon and many more.
Early evidence of the name can be found in Ireland where the family had been granted lands by the Earl of Pembroke for their assistance in the Anglo/Norman invasion in 1172.
The Fitzsimmons name is sometimes thought of as being exclusive to Ireland, but it is, indeed, much more prevalent historically in England. Nevertheless, the first records of the name in Ireland are of a period very shortly after the Anglo-Norman invasion.
In 1585, a family named Fitzsimon possessed Castlereagh and other castles in the surrounding area.
People are much more particular nowadays about the exact spelling of their names, but, even as late as the eighteenth century, we find the same families using variant spellings of the Fitzsimmons name, like FitzSimon and FitzSymon (with or without the final S), as well as FitzSymonds and even FitzSimmons, while occasionally the Fitz is dropped and Symons - the use or disuse of the capital S after Fitz was quite arbitrary. The majority of births recorded for the time are entered as Fitzsimons.
The most important line of the FitzSimons is that which came to Ireland from Simonshide, in Hertfordshire, and settled in the Pale in 1323. Since then they have remained a prominent family in Counties Dublin and Westmeath. There are no less than seven Dublin men in the Funeral Entries of Ulster King of Arms between 1568 and 1610, four being civic dignitaries of some sort - Mayor, Recorder etc.
By 1659 they had become not only influential in County Westmeath, but had multiplied in numbers too, for in the census of that date FitzSimons appears as a principal Irish name in the barony of Demifore. Some of these families adopted the Gaelic patronymic Mac anRidire, anglicized MacRuddery, which, in turn, was sometimes changed by translation to MacKnight. The Four Masters record the death in 1505 of Edmund Dorcha Fitzsimon "of the descendants of the Knight", who was prior of Fore. There was a connection between the Mayo Fitzsimonses and those of Dublin, for in the "Composition Book of Connacht" dated 1585 Nicholas FitzSymons is described as "gent. of Downmackiny" (barony of Clanmorris) and also alderman of Dublin. They are now represented by the family of O'Connell-FitzSimon of Glenculle, Co. Dublin.
Speaking of those FitzSimons of County Mayo, it is interesting to note that while in 1585 the "Composition Book of Connacht" has only one reference to them under their Gaelic patronymic, in the Stafford Inquisition, made fifty years later, they are called MacRuddery, MacEruddery etc. in 22 entries. The name Fitzsimon cannot be found at all. One of its synonyms in that document is Ediry, a surname which as Eddery is still existing today, though rare.
Especially noteworthy among the distinguished bearers of the name in Ireland are:
Walter Fitzsimons (d. 1511), Archbishop of Dublin from 1484, who also ably performed the duties of Lord Deputy and of Lord Chancellor for several years; and Father Henry Fitzsimon, S.J. (1566-1643), whose remarkable career is described in Rev. E. Hogan's Distinguished Irishmen of the Sixteenth Century.