he rugged mountains of  County Wicklow, Ireland, during the late 16th and early 17th centuries  was a region of forest, crags and highland bogs known as the O'Byrne Country.

     The sweeping Protestant Reformation and oppression by British forces eventually led to what became known as the Irish Rebellion of 1798.  The Byrne Clan played no small role during this turbulent period of history.
     Today's Byrns / Byrnes families trace their common origin back to these pivotal times and to the Clan O'Byrne of County Wicklow.   
     After leaving Ireland, James Byrns of Grafton County N.H. married Margaret Meyer and the young family began working their way westward along the southern edge of the Great Lakes.
    The trek would eventually bring the sons of James and Margaret to become leading figures in the founding of Kankakee County, Illinois. The brothers James W. Byrns and George W. Byrnes  would eventually become the first sheriffs of the new county. George, the first appointed sheriff in 1853, adopted a different version of the ancestral name than did his father and brother. James, became sheriff in 1854 when the county held its first election. His son, Arthur, became the county's third sheriff in 1993 and another son, Albert Byrns, would later become sheriff of Mead County, Kansas.
     While branches of the family have moved west into Kansas and western Canada, direct descendents of James Byrns remain in Kankakee County and Macon County, Illinois, while the youngest members of the family live in Champaign County, Illinois.