Pat, You're a Cúisín, the name of one or more Norman families who came to Ireland as part of the Cambro-Norman invasion. Both Cushing and Cushion are good English phonetic attempts at Cúisín found in Co. Wexford and Tipperary. Cushing and Cushion would have been used interchangeably. The Cúisín settled in Munster and Leinster, especially Counties Limerick, Cork, and Wexford. Woulfe in Sloinnte Gaedheal 7 Gall reports that the original form of the name is Norman French 'le cosyn' which in modern French would be 'le cousin.' Almost every Norman family went Gaelic in law, dress, custom, and language within 3 generations or so of the invasion, so by about 1270-1300. These days, the Limerick family usually anglicizes its name as Cussen and no doubt settled on this form soon after they became English-speaking in the 1-2 generations after the Great Hunger of the 1840s. But your ancestor born in 1812 was undoubtedly an Irish speaker and could easily have left Ireland before that form of anglicization became customary. (Do you know when he reached North America?) Also, once overseas, anyone who heard him pronounce his name in Irish would have spelled it in English as Cushion or Cushing, as they did, and not as Cussen which is not at all an accurate rendering of the original Irish. I'd guess that a Wexford man would have typically left Ireland from Wexford town or Waterford town, so I suspect that your ancestor was from either Co. Limerick or next door in Co. Tipperary, and therefore left from Limerick. Hope that's helpful, Jerry Kelly NA GAEIL MAGAZINE (coming soon to an internet near you) ----- Original Message ----- From: "Pat Seger" <seger001@gold.tc.umn.edu> To: "Jerry Kelly" <jerrykelly@att.net> Cc: <Irish-American-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, March 21, 2004 8:50 PM Subject: Re: [Irish-American] origin of CUSHING Jerry, My CUSHING is my brick wall. Evidence on a declaration of intent for US Citizenship indicates that my John CUSHING probably came from Limerick. I don't know if he was actually from the county or just emigrated from the port. He was born approx 1812, parents and siblings unknown. Married to Elizabeth Kelly, but I don't know if there were married in Ireland or US. One of the US census lists him as CUSHION, but I always figured that was a phonetic spelling by the census taker. There was a marriage in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada between William John Cushing and Catherine DINEEN. She was one of 9 children of WIlliam DINEEN - from Kilnamartyra, County Cork and Catherine KERNAND, County Cavan. I have traced his parents my grgrgrgrandparents, Jeremiah DINEEN and Ellen Riordan (Reardan) to their marriage in Kilnamartyra, County Cork in 1822 Any and all assistance is appreciated.