Between the years 1784 and 1788, three Widney brothers left Ireland for Franklin County, Pennsylvania.  They were James Widney born 1753, Charles Widney born 1763, and John Widney born 1766.  While still in Ireland, the family’s name just occasionally was written Woodney, shown by Irish deeds and wills to be the same patriline as the Widneys.

In about 1860, one Christopher Woodney left Ireland for New Zealand.  There, his descendants settled on the Woodney spelling, and a Woodney great-grandson of Christopher was tested and discovered to be a strong Y-DNA match for a Widney 4^th-great-grandson of Charles Widney mentioned above.

At the same time, it is found in two disparate, non-repeating Scottish sources that Widney is the Scots pronunciation of the uncommon Scottish surname Udny.  Not only so, but it is shown in the 1875 volume “An Historical Account of the Plantation in Ulster”, citing original documents, that one Oliver Udny obtained a 1621 lease for land in Ireland located just 33 miles from the land the Widneys later acquired.