My question is; Did these LOYS from Ireland consider themselves as Irish or were they Greman or Swiss living in Ireland? In the 1760's and 70's there were large families of LOYS in Austria. For reasons not totally clear but partially in 1780's Empress Maria Theresa opened up lands to the east and in the 1895 to 1815 Napolean made movement a strong consideration. Is it possible that some moved west to Ireland while my Loy's moved east to Bukovina, Austria--now Romania. My Loys considered themselves as German. If anyone can answer this question, there could be a real breakthrough in the research of the LOY name. Helen hwhitemc@msn.com