Bowles in Ireland

"An Irishman gets more Irish the further he gets from Ireland."

"What matters is not what their religion was, but that they came "from Ireland""

the last is a tip of the hat to the work of Dr. Jane Lyons

(note: throughout this site, the surname Bowles generally refers to those with surnames Bowles, Boles, Bolles etc.)

After 150 to 200 or more years in Canada it can be hard to distinguish but most of the Bowles in Canada have their roots in Ireland. Catholics and Protestants, when their family is traced back to the census records of the 1800's, perhaps three quarters of these Bowles ancestors gave their Ethnic Origin as Irish. The rest were of British origin with one branch in Nova Scotia from Scotland (although possibly also via Ireland).

The Bowles surname appears throughout Ireland but there are significant concentrations of records for this name in Cork, Laois (formerly Queen's county), Carlow and Tipperary in the south and in Sligo, Cavan, Fermanagh, Down and Antrim in the north. The Bowles of Canada have their connections to all of these areas.

See List of Bowles Birth, Marriage and Death References in Ireland

See Bowles in FHL Civil Registration microfilms for Ireland

See Bowles Birth/Marriage/Death Records in Ireland by County (in progress)

The Bowles of Fermanagh

The Bowles of Laois

The Bowles of Leitrim

The Bowles of Limerick

The Bowles of Roscommon

The Boles of Sligo

The Bowles of Tipperary

The Bowles of Wexford

The Bowles of Clare, Derry, Galway, Kerry, Kildare, Kilkenny, Louth, Meath, Monaghan, Tyrone, Waterford and Westmeath. (counties with only a few Bowles references)

Miscellaneous Records

Selected Records from Irish Quaker Index Books

Irish References from the Quaker "Annual Monitor for 1851"

Deed Memorials by County

"An Irishman is merely a person who has had the good or bad fortune to have been born in Ireland, or of Irish parents, and who is interested in Ireland more than in any country in the world" - Robert Lynd