Hynes Coat of Arms, Family Crest and Hynes Family History

Hynes Family History

The Hynes ancient family history was found in the irishsurnames.com archives. The names Hynes, Hines and Heynes are derived from the Gaelic O'hEidhin sept name.

A sept or clan is a collective term describing a group of persons whose immediate ancestors bore a common surname and inhabited the same territory. It is also the case that many Irish septs or clans that are related often belong to a larger groups, sometimes called tribes. For example the 'Tribes of Galway' consisted of fourteen distinct families. The 'Tribes of Kilkenny' were ten families, etc.

The name is derived from 'Guaire the Hospitable', who was King of Connacht. From the seventh century up until the destruction of the Gaelic order nearly a thousand years later, the head of the sept was Chief of a territory in South Galway, the barony of Kiltartan. When the Anglo-Normans occupied considerable portions of Galway in the thirteenth century the families of O'Heyne and O'Shaughnessy were left in possession of large tracts of their ancient patrimony, and as late as 1878 the head of the family was in possession of 4,169 acres near Ballinasloe. Since the middle of the seventeenth century these families have been chiefly notable as priests. From Ireland the name has spread to Scotland, England and Wales and to the new world of America, Canada and beyond.The Hynes family crest (or coat of arms) came into existence many centuries ago. The process of creating these coats of arms began as early as the eleventh century although a form of Proto-Heraldry may have existed in some countries prior to this, including Ireland. The new more formalized art of Heraldry made it possible for families and even individual family members to have their very own family crest, coat of arms, including Hynes descendants.