The Toney Family

I’ve been doing a little research on my wife’s family tree. Back into her paternal line, she is connected to the Toney family through her great-great grandmother, Idona Toney. This line is traced back a few generations through Wisconsin, Ohio, and finally Virginia. Fortunately, this family seems pretty popular in the genealogy circle. It looks like the Toney family spread pretty far from this area.

While searching for some type of link from Virginia back to Europe, I found some interesting information via Google. It looks like the Toney family in America can be traced back to a Toney family in England and then back much further to the “first” Toney (at least the first one to use the surname.)

Now, obviously, there are some missing connections from my wife back to the first Toney, but it’s interesting to look over. The connection from her back to the Virginia Toney’s is pretty solid based on Census and other records, but from there it’s a bit fuzzy.

Here is some of the information I found:

The first known Toney ancestor ever was Ralph the son of Hugh De Calvacamp. Hugh’s father was Malahulic/(Malahule)who came to the Normandy area of France from Norway on a Viking ship. He came with Rollo, or Rolph the Ganger. Hugh De Calvacamp’s father Malahulic was uncle to Rollo. Rollo was the leader of the group that our ancestors came with. He and his followers( taunted/annoyed/stalked or worse) the coastlines of France until the King gave him the area that is now Normandy.

Hugh De Calvacamp also had a son Hugh De Calvacamp Jr. He was given the Archbishopship of Rouen by the Duke of Normandy, he being cousin to the Duke. There were certain lands that came with this title. Hugh gave his brother Ralph a piece of land called Tosni/Toeni, it was situated just across the River Seine from Les Andelys. The “s” in Tosni is silent therefore sounding like Toney. Ralph then became known as Raph de Toney. Our first ancestor was Standard Bearer to the Duke of Normandy, and became a hereditary position to Ralph’s descendants.

From The Toney Family (be warned there is music…for some reason. Ugh.) 

I looked through my Family Forest CD (an older one) and even found Ralph de Tonei and also Rolph the Ganger. One of the Ralphs even has a Wikipedia page. Even though this line isn’t officially connected, it still brings a little excitement to the research. Any type of excitement only helps to do more research.

Has there been a find that has brought much needed excitement to your research?