My Dillon ancestry takes me back 4 generations to Patrick Dillon who seems to originate in Ireland, and was born around 1820. If you add in myself, my children and grandchildren, that makes 7 generations in all.
Patrick Dillon emigrated to Scotland at about the period of the potato famine in 1848-50. Then he disappears, probably back to Ireland. By 1871, his son, John, had settled in Manchester. From family knowledge, I know there was contact between the Dillons in Manchester and their Irish relatives until the early 1930s.
This simplified family tree gives the known main Dillon family members and events:
Patrick Dillon - Born (probably) in Ireland in ca 1820; No other information.
|
John Dillon - Born ca 1842 in Edinburgh; Married, Mary Smith 1871; Died 1898 in Manchester.
|
William Dillon - Born 1877 in Manchester; Married Elizabeth Ann Taylor 1900; Died 1933 in Manchester.
|
Ruby Collins - Born 1914 in Manchester; Married Fred Collins 1936; Died 2000 in Radlett, Hertfordshire.
|
Ian Collins - Born 1944
ORIGIN OF THE DILLON SURNAME
Several derivations are possible:
Irish (of Norman origin): altered form of de Leon - a nickname for a fierce or brave warrior, or a name for someone living at a house distinguished by the sign of a lion.
Irish (Anglicised Gaelic): a personal name, a variant of Dallan - meaning ‘little blind one’. Possibly a Anglicised form of Gaelic Ó Duilleáin ‘descendant of Duilleán’.
Welsh: Dillyn - handsome, gallant, brave, fine.
The earliest mention of Dillon in Irish history follows the Anglo-Norman invasion of the 12th Century.