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The Lawns.
I was a Lawn before I was married. They have been such a problem family to trace for reasons I will tell you about now.
My Dad was from York, moved down to Gloucester in the 1960's, met my Mum and stayed here. When I started my family history I mainly concentrated on Mums family, as they were locals, and in the days when you had to visit the County Record Office to access information, travelling to York was out of the question.
Since lots of information is now accessible on the internet I have made a few discoveries.
Dads father was Harold, son of Alexander, son of Alexander (who was born in Gloucester!!), son of Edward. How weird that he should come from Gloucester - where we live, and Dad never to have known about a connection with Gloucester!! BUT, his birth was registered in the local registrars office in the name of LONG!!!! And finally I had the mothers name - Ann DENNAN, but was it DENNAN? Or was that a spelling mistake as well?!!
Before living in Gloucester they lived in Dudley, where another child was born, but there the birth was registered as LANE!!!
And before that they were in Liverpool - a child by the name of LAWN! Before that I think they were in Glasgow, as on a census they have 2 children that they state to be born in Glasgow (first one 1839).
On all the census's they state that they were from IRELAND. And on the 1851 say that they were from Belfast. Both born around 1808- 1813 (depending on which census you read)
Years ago when I started my family tree I had communication from a Lawn lady who said that they were from Letterkenny, Donegal, my Uncle went over to Donegal and was told a story about them changing their name.
Grandad used to say that his family were from Ireland. And then there was a story about them eloping! And something about an Island off Ireland part of Scotland, or Island of Scotland part of Ireland, I was only 5 or 6, so I am not sure how much of this I remember!
Now, my Irish history is terrible, sorry, actually non existent, maybe it is something I should read up on!. The story told to Uncle Peter was that the Lawns were on one side, and were starving, and the Orange men offered to feed them soup, but only if they changed sides and changed their surname to show they were commmited. Dad thinks that the Surname was Lawson, Loughlan or something like that, but I feel he is just guessing.
I have a few questions ....
Do you know of any Islands that would fit in with the story?
Has anyone heard of anything similar to the soup story?
Does anyone know of any LAWN or DENNAN families in Donegal (or elsewhere)?
If you pronounce LAWN with an Irish accent, do you get anything that sounds like LONG or LANE - just wondering why the Census and Birth Registers made this mistake.
I was a Lawn before I was married. They have been such a problem family to trace for reasons I will tell you about now.
My Dad was from York, moved down to Gloucester in the 1960's, met my Mum and stayed here. When I started my family history I mainly concentrated on Mums family, as they were locals, and in the days when you had to visit the County Record Office to access information, travelling to York was out of the question.
Since lots of information is now accessible on the internet I have made a few discoveries.
Dads father was Harold, son of Alexander, son of Alexander (who was born in Gloucester!!), son of Edward. How weird that he should come from Gloucester - where we live, and Dad never to have known about a connection with Gloucester!! BUT, his birth was registered in the local registrars office in the name of LONG!!!! And finally I had the mothers name - Ann DENNAN, but was it DENNAN? Or was that a spelling mistake as well?!!
Before living in Gloucester they lived in Dudley, where another child was born, but there the birth was registered as LANE!!!
And before that they were in Liverpool - a child by the name of LAWN! Before that I think they were in Glasgow, as on a census they have 2 children that they state to be born in Glasgow (first one 1839).
On all the census's they state that they were from IRELAND. And on the 1851 say that they were from Belfast. Both born around 1808- 1813 (depending on which census you read)
Years ago when I started my family tree I had communication from a Lawn lady who said that they were from Letterkenny, Donegal, my Uncle went over to Donegal and was told a story about them changing their name.
Grandad used to say that his family were from Ireland. And then there was a story about them eloping! And something about an Island off Ireland part of Scotland, or Island of Scotland part of Ireland, I was only 5 or 6, so I am not sure how much of this I remember!
Now, my Irish history is terrible, sorry, actually non existent, maybe it is something I should read up on!. The story told to Uncle Peter was that the Lawns were on one side, and were starving, and the Orange men offered to feed them soup, but only if they changed sides and changed their surname to show they were commmited. Dad thinks that the Surname was Lawson, Loughlan or something like that, but I feel he is just guessing.
I have a few questions ....
Do you know of any Islands that would fit in with the story?
Has anyone heard of anything similar to the soup story?
Does anyone know of any LAWN or DENNAN families in Donegal (or elsewhere)?
If you pronounce LAWN with an Irish accent, do you get anything that sounds like LONG or LANE - just wondering why the Census and Birth Registers made this mistake.
