Surname Saturday - What the Hallinan??!

Hallinan. Maybe Hallinane. The first time I saw this name was when I was researching my paternal great grandfather, James Cosgrove, who  I knew (at the time) was born in “Ireland.” Incredibly helpful, that. But I was so excited when I found out that the Burnley Cemetery (Lancashire, England) had its records online. And, even more excited when I found this:

I was working on unraveling the mystery of James Cosgrove and Catherine Durkin Cosgrove’s young daughter, Mary Ann, who had died at 17 (you can read that post here). Naturally, while locating the truth about Mary Ann, I found two new mystery names: Holihan and Feeley.

I was able to determine who Agnes Feeley was fairly quickly; she and her husband Luke were the godparents, before they were married,  of James and Catherine’s first son, Francis:

And, ten years later as a married couple they were godparents to James and Catherine’s daughter, Catherine:

So, I decided to take a long shot and I ordered the marriage certificate of James Cosgrove and Catherine Durkin directly from Burnley:

Ah, the beauty of records outside the U.S. is that they often provide a plethora of information. In this case, I now had the first name of Catherine Durkin Cosgrove’s father:  Patrick. Armed with that information, I went hunting for them in the English Census. To my surprise, I found them right away in 1861!

Of course, the first thing that caught my eye was that name: Hallinane. There he is, listed as the 66 year old father-in-law of Patrick Durkin, Patrick Hallinane. Ah, but let no answer come without more mysteries; his place of birth is recorded as “British Colonies”, as is his daughter, Patrick’s wife Anne. I confirmed this was the right family, because the spelling was off a bit, by pulling the 1871 and 1881 Censuses as well and both the Catholic parish name and addresses match with other records.

It would appear that my 3^rd great grandfather may have been born on one of the islands in the Carribean that, at the turn of the 19^th Century, were under colonial rule. (I'd ruled out any number of other potential "British" places) Obviously, finding records of someone born around 1795 in any one of a long list of places like that can’t possibly bear fruit. But, then again, I said I’d ‘never’ find the origins of my Irish Cosgroves either. *munches on words*

So, I’ve added the name Hallinan(e) to my list of confirmed surnames. The full list, as of today, looks like this:

MATERNAL:  Wersel, Wicart, Geerling, Wagner, Hensgen, Gerlach, Augustin, Richards, Penn, Greene, Barton, Russell, Tucker, Wallace, Chambers, Claypoole, Burrows, Waters, Meeker, Crocheron, Tunis, Camp, Johnson, Jeffrey, Nichol/Nicol, Powelson, Metselser, Messler, and Garrett

PATERNAL: Cosgrove, Quinn, Durkin, Hallinan/Hallinane, Leatherman, Alstaetter/Alstätter, Goebel, Schneider, Beightler/Beaghtler/Bieghler/Beighler/Bigler, Lukenbill, Ammarine/Amerine/Amrine, Picony, Wolford, Worley, Barnes and Rogers.

Whew! Now, to plan that research trip to the islands…

Thanks for reading!!