Sarah Looney and my Looney family join at the Moses Looney Sr. level. My mother was a looney and I have confidently traced our Looney family line back to Robert Looney b. ~1692 who came from the Isle of Man. The Isle of Man claim was always based on family lore up until recently when several American Looney lines submitted DNA test samples. Those samples matched those of the family line for a Looney who had migrated to New Zealand. If you look up the Looney Family DNA Project on the Family Tree DNA website you will find multiple Looney family lines. Most point back to Robert Looney Sr. of Botetourt County, VA. The is one shown as L-5 that points back to the Isle of Man. This family line is described below:

Looney Family Project, Line 5
John Looney b. c1700 Maughold, Isle of Man, m Margaret Kelvie
Ewan Looney b. 1766 Maughold, Isle of Man, m Mary Taggart
Joseph Looney b. 1791 Maughold, Isle of Man, m Isabella Looney(b 1813)
Evan Looney b. ...... Isle of man, m Margaret Quayle
Thomas Evan Looney b ....... Isle of Man, m Catherine Lile
Edgar Redvers Looney b.1899 Inglewood, New Zealand, m Dulcie Gardiner
Evan Howard Lorney b.1932 Inglewood, NZ, m Vilma Mathie
Howard Redvers Lorney b. 1956 Helensville, NZ m Mary Wallace
Ewan Robert Lorney b. 1987, Hamilton NZ
Howard Lorney (Looney), New Zeland

I have read the hundreds of posts here on this message board concerning Looney in the Isle of Man and it would seem to indicate that while the Robert Looney of America family lore may not be 100% correct, Robert Looney's DNA shows that he was indeed a descendant of the Looney family from the Isle of Man.

I'm not sure where the Maughold information started, but based on what I have seen discussed here over the past few years seems to inddicate that in fact Robert Looney is more likely to have come from a branch of the family that resided at the time in the Parish of Malew.

I really do appreciate the fact that there have been a few individuals on this discussion group who have put in a lot of time and effort attempting to sort out all the Looney who lived on the Isle of Man. Maybe one of these days we will see a family tree that shows how they were all related.

If there are any male Looney descendants that are known to have their origins on the Isle of Man I would encourage them to submit to DNA testing. A Looney first cousin of mine submitted his DNA and it is now included in both the Looney Family DNA Project as well as the Isle of Man DNA Project. The more test results they have, the better they are able to analyze it.

Thanks for all who have contributed to figuring out the Isle of Man Looney family, especially those who researched the Robert Looney who went to early America.