Chat
|
Daily Search
|
My GenForum
|
Community Standards
|
Terms of Service
|
|
|
Gilsenan and all of its spellings (your spelling makes 19 so far, but is not one of those listed in Griffith's, below) is a very rare name in Ireland. I have analyzed all of the references to this name in "Griffith's Valuation of Ireland" (mid-1850s-60s) and this name is only found about 135 times, almost half of them in Co. Meath. The vast majority of references are in a small area where Monaghan, Meath, Westmeath and Cavan adjoin, with a few in Co. Dublin and a stray one in Cork. If you have not looked at Griffith's, which was a land survey to see who owned what but also included the names of who occupied/leased the land (including the tenant farmers, our ancestors), and which serves as a sort-of substitute for the destroyed Irish censuses of that time period I suggest you do so. An index is now available on CD ROM and the actual records are available on loan through the LDS Family History Centers.
Spellings I have found include Gelshin, Gelshinan, Gelshinnan, Gilsenan, Gilshenan, Gilshennan, Gilssenan, Gilsinan, Gilsinane, Gilshinin, Gilsinan, Guilsenan, Guilshan, Guilshannan, Guilshenan, Guilshennan, Guilshinan and Gulshinon. Just as in the US federal census, they wrote it down as they heard it, and most of these folks in that time period could neither read nor write, and didn't know the "correct" spelling of the name, whatever it may have been.
My Catherine Gilssenan, b. ca. 1840s/50s to Felix Gulshinan and Catherine Rafferty, is found in the vicinity of Carrickmacross, Magheracloone civil parish, Co. Monaghan.
Followups:
|
| http://genforum.genealogy.com/gilsenan/messages/3.html | ||
 |
Agreement of Use Link to GenForum Add Forum |
|