Newman is the maiden name of one of our paternal great-great-great grandmothers, Alice Newman (c.1800-1872?) who married Andrew Beazley around 1830. The sequence of surnames in the five generations between us goes Newman-Beazley-McCraith-Dwyer-Dwyer-Dwyer.
The surname Newman is of Germanic origin, and was a pre-7th century nickname for somebody new to a particular place. It came to Ireland from England in the 13th century. In the mid-19th century it was very common in County Cork, with 25% of all Newman families in Ireland living there. Our Newman ancestors were among these Cork families, and in particular the Schull (Skull) area of south west County Cork.
No Newman ancestors have been definitely identified apart from Alice Newman (1800-1872).
One other researcher1 believes that Alice’s parents were Benjamin Newman and Sarah Roycroft, and that they had four children: Alice, John, Mary and William. There are a number of Newman households in the Skull civil parish recorded in Griffith’s Valuation, including several headed by a William or John Newman.
1 http://www.mundia.com/au/Person/22653469/1276618496. The source of this information is not referenced, and the results could not be duplicated from existing online databases and indexes.