General Notes

Piers, Lord of Birmingham, co. Warwick (d), [ancestor of the Bermingham Family of Athenry Ireland]. [Complete Peerage I:290]

(d) The name of the Founder is uncertain, by some it is said to be Piers or Peter, and by others William, although neither of these names appears in any Irish document of this date. The family were called Mac Feorais (or Phioris), which is the Erse equivalent for Fitz Piers, after Piers Bermingham [grandson], temp. Henry III, so no inference can be drawn therefrom, as to the name of the first of the Berminghams to settle in Connaught.

Note: Piers, whose younger son Robert went to Ireland before 1175, and possibly 1172 or earlier (I have his daughter born there in 1172), must also be the ancestor of the Bermingham/Birmingham family that remained in Birmingham, co. Warwick. Thus I have indicated a couple of missing generations, through an "elder son" to the Birmingham descendants.