Can Lenahan/Lenehan/Lenihan Derive from Linnihan?

Question

I was wondering if I can get some expertise help extending my family history search. Lenihan-69 is a distant relative of mine. I'm trying to find record proof of his parents, which I believe to be James Lenahan (or Lenihan) and Bridget Burns.  Lenihan-69 married an Alice Quinlan (Quinlan-185) believed to be on Jul 21 1844 based on what I've seen in other people's trees.  I've been trying to find that marriage cert so that I could get the parents names but no luck. I do have record proof of the marriage of the son of Lenihan-69 and his wife Quinlan-185 (their son Thomas), so the spelling of their last names is correct (Lenihan and Quinlan).  I just don't know where to go next. Familysearch doesn't have any other hits, nor does the Irish genealogy website.

Once I confirm this parents names, I then want to find 'their' parents names too. Can anyone give any advise where I should go next?

Answer 1

This may be his parents, they are living next to John in the 1850 Census :

Name:	James Lenahan
Gender:	Male
Age:	52
Estimated birth year:	abt 1800
Relation to Head of House:	Head
Spouse's Name:	Bridget Lenahan
Race:	Irish
Province:	New Brunswick
District:	Kings County
Sub-district:	Hampton
Sub-District Number:	36
Household Members:	Name Age James Lenahan 52 Bridget Lenahan 52 Thomas Lenahan 24 William Lenahan 17

 

Source Citation

Year: 1851; Census Place: Hampton, Kings County, New Brunswick; Schedule: I; Roll: C_995; Page: 27; Line: 27

Comments

Actually yes sorry - I have seen that one. I guess that is where we get the info on who the parents are, because Thomas and William are his brothers. I'm trying to get to the next step - what can I use to determine who James Lenahan's parents are.

Answer 2

So, i purchased a 24 hour pass on rootsireland.ie trying to find my ancestor James Lenahan and his wife Bridget Burns. This is how the names are entered in the Ontario census.  I know they had their first child in 1821.

I found a Church Marriage Record for April 13, 1818 - James Linnihan to a Bridget Byrn in County Cork.  Unfortunately I have no idea where they lived when in Ireland.

is it too much of a leap to think that James Linnihan could be Lenahan and Byrn be Burns just 30 years later after moving to Canada?

Here is a screen shot of the record

[IMG]http://i66.tinypic.com/delpqx.jpg[/IMG]