Looking for MERLIHAN family origin

I looked for the name on a few  search locations and it is very uncommon.  They seem to be from County Westmeath.  Maybe you should post on that page and include some names and dates.  Might want to ask if there are any variations in the name also.  I found it also spelled Merlehan and Merlahan, but maybe there is also something else..  Here are the links I found with Merlihan.

1901 Cenus:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/results.jsp?census_year=19…

Griffiths Valuation (1845)

http://www.failteromhat.com/post1845.php

Family Search:

https://familysearch.org/search/record/results#count=20&query=%2Bsurnam…

Cathy

Chicago

Rootsireland lists 89 Merlihan baptisms - 77 Westmeath, 2 Longford, 2 Meath, 5 Tyrone, and 3 Waterford. I would not discount the possibilty of the surname being recorded phonetically in Canda and would not rule out names like Monaghan. To get the most - for free - from Rootsweb use this technique:-

In this example I was looking for a Minnie and Catherine Wiley sisters parents unknown.

How I did it was to use the pay to view site

http://rootsireland.ie/

I did firstly a national search for Minnie which threw up a couple both in Antrim. I then switched to County Antrim.

By playing about with the date range I was able to narrow down the baptism to a specific year. I still have not used the pay to view option yet nor used up any of my limited number of free previews. Once I had a Minnie I had to find her parents first names. I started with father first name a - this would bring up any firstnames starting with "a". Working through the alphabet got me to H when I got a hit adding further letters and worked out father was Hugh. Search then for Wiley children no firstname father Hugh within ten years of Minnie. Got 6 hits and using same technique was able to work out the 6 names - but no Catherine. Minnie is a common nickname so reverted to Catherine. Broad search found two which narrowed down to one in 1868 and one in 1872. Was able to work out 1868 was daughter of John and Mary. Broad search found no other children to this couple. 1872 Catherine was daughter of John and Jane and a broad search threw up 9 children. Plodding through the alphabet got me Alexander, Eliza, Catherine, Eleanor, Francis, John, James, Samuel, Wilhemina, which was more complicated since it is usually spelled WilheLmina.  Catherine I knew was 1872, and bit of playing about with date range got me 1881 for Wilhemina. Age gap fits the two sisters although the ages are well out - no surprises there!

You can play about with the dates until you match up the other 7 children. You can refine it a bit more by choosing one child then working your way through the drop down menu of the various parishes until you get a hit. Then you can see if all the other children were also in the same parish. Bearing in mind couples did move about as well as changing churches. It is quite possible that these 9 children were born to more than one couple named John and Jane.  Getting one transcript should give mothers maiden name and doing a broad search for baptisms to John and Jane with new surname hopefully should confirm 9 children. However many older records do not list mother's maiden name. Using this technique you can gain a lot of data without using up your limited number of free searches or having to buy any transcripts.

Bob Graham (County Fermanagh XO)