References

Andrew Fenlon 18451845

Andrew Fenlon 1845

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Andrew married an Irish woman in 1887 at the Catholic church in Barnsley, Yorkshire.  The marriage cert calls him Andrew Finlin and she was Hannah Breen.  Her name could have been Brehan or anything like that, but Hannah was right.  They were illiterate and Barnsley had a notoriously extreme dialect and accent.  As grandson James Fenlon said: "Two Micks from the bogs.  It's amazing they could communicate at all."  (Dad was not proud of his Irish ancestry.)  Neither of them appeared on the 1861 Census, though it is possible one or other was there under another surname.  He was 40 and she was 30, per the marriage certificate.  His father was James Fenlon (deceased), Farmer.  Her father was Patrick Breen (deceased), Corn Miller.  He was a coal miner, she was a domestic servant.  They were bachelor and spinster.

BTW. Fenlon is a ludicrously difficult name for others to spell.  I (Patrick Fenlon, g-grandson) have over 70 different versions of it.  TheGenealogist has her marrying an Andrew Finley, a mistranscription of a misunderstanding.  Wonderful!  Good Luck!!

Family history has they coming from the same village in Ireland.  In the 1891 Census they both come from Ireland.  In the 1901 Census he comes from Kilkenny, Ireland and she comes from Ireland.  In the 1911 Census they both come from Carlow, Ireland.  When grandson James was asked where the family came from he thought and said Donegal.  Wrong, but he was trying to remember.  My guess is that it was a place with a similar name and have found Clonegal, Carlow which is near to the border with Kilkenny.

Children: Information per FreeBMD.  All born in Wakefield, Yorks.

John Thomas (16 Apr 1889).

Mary Ann (Qtr 4 1890).

David (born Qtr 1 1891 as David Finlon - died Qtr 2 1891 as David Fenlin)

Katherine (Qtr 1 1892) registered as Catherine

Ellen (Qtr 4 1894)

Andrew (born Qtr 1 1896 - died Qtr 4 1898)

Between 1898 and 1901 they moved to Tanshelf, a suburb of Pontefract, Yorks.

Andrew died in Qtr 2 1925 in Pontefract.  Hannah died in Qtr 1 1928 in Halifax, Yorks.

Additional Information
Date of Birth 1st Jan 1845 (circa)
Date of Death 1st Jan 1925 (circa)
Father (First Name/s and Surname) James Fenlon, Farmer
Place & Date of Marriage 12/6/1887, Barnsley, Yorkshire.
Spouse (First Name/s and Maiden/Surname) Wife=Hannah Breen, d'ter of Patrick Breen (deceased), Corn Miller.
Number of Children No of Children=7, first John Thomas, 1889.
Occupation Coal Miner.
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Comments

  • Hi, I looked through Clonegal baptism records but could not find your Andrew. I will look further. In the meantime I would suggest your family come from Myshall, Myshall would also be near Clonegal. In fact currently the same priest who covers Clonegal Parish also serves Myshall. Not sure but the original Clonegal Parish boundaries  could have included Myshall. I have details of many Fenlon headstones from Myshall and will gladly recover them for you. As I don't know how old your post is I might be wasting my time doing the research if you are not  still logging in to this site. Let me know if you read this and I will gladly share the information with you.

    Eamonn

    Fear Cliste

    Monday 4th July 2022 04:22PM
  • Thank you for your time Eamonn.  I appreciate it a lot.

    My name is Patrick Fenlon, and Andrew is a Great-Grandfather of mine.  I have traced some ancestors back to the 1500's in England and early 1800's in Wales, but Ireland is a dead end for me.  I haven't found any traces.

    From the 1911 Census return I see that they both claimed their Birthplace to be from 'Ireland Carlow', which could be the town or the county but I would expect it is the county.  The West Yorkshire accent is fairly strong and there could well have been communication problems in 1891 and 1901, but in 1911 all heads of households filled in their own census forms, so it wasn't a guess from an ennumerator.  The signature matches the writing elsewhere on the form and there is no question of 'X his mark', so he filled it in himself, along with a couple of mistakes, again showing that it was not completed by an ennumerator.  He could write surprisingly well.

    I asked my father where his grandparents came from and after a good think he said 'Donegal'.  I believed that for years, but he was wrong.  My guess was that it was a name similar to that, so I focussed on Clonegal as it seemed to be the only place with a similar enough name in the county.

    My father is deceased, as are his parents, brothers and sister, so I can't ask again.

    The name goes back over 1,000 years, when it was 'Ó Fionnaláin' - 'the fair one', showing they chose to name their family after a grandfather who was a Viking, the only fair haired and fair skinned people in Ireland in the late 900's.

    I am very keen to go back through the Irish ancestors so if you could point me in the right direction I would be very grateful.

    I was born in Yorkshire, England, but now live in New Zealand, so I can't plan to pop over to Carlow and check things out for myself.  I have to rely on the Internet, and the occasional kind person such as yourself.

    Thanks a lot, Patrick

     

    bushwalker

    Tuesday 5th July 2022 11:48PM
  • Patrick, I don,t know if my last message reached you but I will recap here. 

    I did suggest you might search church records from Myshall which would still be within the boundaries of Clonegal parish. 

    There are 4 cemeteries in Myshall. I have records from 3 of these which were published by a parish committee in Myshall. Unfortunately

    this book is no longer available. However these records are availale on www.discovereverafter.com. Under Cemeteries type in Myshall and the names of thev 3 will appear.

    Search under Fenlon , Fenlin and Fenelon. From the records I have there are multiple headstones for Fenlon. 

    I have visited the 4th Cemetery , named Lismaconly , previously but was only searching for my own family. I will try to get there again soon and will photograph any headstones relating to Fenlon.

    Could we , in future , correspond via email as I find it difficult to find your thread on this site. Normally questions are posted under parish names and are easier to find. Yours is only a general question so I have trouble finding it . My email for all things ancestry is dunnydad@gmail.com

    Keep in touch if you think I can be of any assistance. I will contact you when I have photographs from Lismaconly. In the meantime send me your email address

    Regards,

    Eamonn

    Fear Cliste

    Friday 8th July 2022 01:04PM

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