Family Matters

Family Matters - 15. The Goninans in London

I have known for sometime that there was a Goninan family in London in the early 18 hundreds because there are two deaths registered in Kensington – Henry Goninan in 1840 and Ann Goninan in 1844. But I have not been able to see how they fit in. Now that on the Ancestry Website they have some baptisms in London I thought I might dig a little deeper.

In searching I found six baptisms, children of Henry and Ann:-

21^st April 1805 Ann Goninan at St Andrew, Holborn (this Church gets a mention in Dicken’s Oliver Twist)

8^th Jan 1809 Mary Goninan at St George the Martyr, Bloomsbury

31^st Dec 1809 Elizabeth Ganinan at St Andrew, Holborn (note the spelling)

17^th March 1811 Susannah Goninan at St George the Martyr, Bloomsbury

6^th June 1813 Frances Goninan at St Marylebone, burial 21^st July 1813

6^th August 1815 Martha Goninan at St Marylebone, burial June 1816

However try as I might I can’t find a marriage for Henry and Ann or Ann on the 1841 census. Also at this stage I couldn’t find any further references to the surviving daughters. So I still had no real idea how this family connects to the Cornish Goninans. However the digitisation of London Parish records continues so perhaps more clues will turn up in the future. There is one contender for the identity of Henry. That’s the Henry Goninan baptised in Helston in 1774, son of Henry Goninan and Ann Plemmin. There is no reference to him in Cornwall after that date. If this is the right Henry, he would have been 31 when Ann jnr was born.

I decided to send for Henry’s death certificate in the hope that it might tell us something. This shows that he died from bronchitis on the 31^st October 1840 at No 18 Bayswater Terrace. He was a hackneyman which means he either hired out or drove carriages. His age is given as 67 which fits fairly well with the idea that he is the Helston Goninan. The death was registered by Ann Leitherland and there was a chance that this was his (married) daughter so I searched on the IGI and found the marriage :-

Ann married William Leitherland on the 24^th June 1836 at St James, Paddington, London. Not that this gets me very far because I can’t find any further references to them.

The search for London Goninans also turned up the baptisms of a Thomas Goninan on the 23^rd July 1780 at St Mary at Lambeth, son of Edward and Sarah. I was a bit sceptical of this until on the IGI I found more references to this family:-

Joshua baptised 19^th March 1775 at Lambeth and Ann on the same date.

I have been able to look at the original entries and Joshua and Ann were not twins, Ann was 3yrs old when she was baptised. Also the surname of the parents for these two children is shown as Gonian although with the baptism of Thomas it is definitely Goninan.

Efforts to find the marriage of Edward and Sarah have so far failed and at the moment I have no real idea who this Edward is. The name Edward is very much associated with the line from Edward and Annie of Breage. The Henry mentioned above was of this line. He was the son of Henry who in turn was the only child I have found of Henry and Mary Goninan (baptised 1749 in Helston) – perhaps he had a brother Edward – the dates would be about right. This is just conjecture though.

Of course you never know what you are going to turn up. In searching for the marriage of Edward I found, on the IGI, a death of Edward Goninan in Mooltan, Bengal in India in 1860. His birth date is given as 1821 and I think this is Edward son of William and Elizabeth Goninan of St Just where he was baptised in 1818 which is close enough. What was he doing in Bengal? almost certainly serving with the British Army which had a presence there. Later I found him on the 1851 census (as Gominan) and he was a soldier, then based at Woolwich (Royal Artillery Barracks)

Searches have also found a family in London with the surname Gonanon (or Gonannon). Whether this is a form of Goninan, I can’t say but it is possible (there is reference to a Gonenan in Breage in Cornwall in 1582). A search of Gonanon whether on Family History sites or more generally on Google brings up very little, suggesting that the name is not just uncommon but extremely rare to the point of being almost non-existent. I found the following in London:-

13^th May 1705 Marriage of Peter Gonanon and Annamaria Larazine at St James, Clerkenwell

Baptisms:-

15^th Aug 1706 John, son of Peter and Mary Gonannon at St Sepulchre, Holborn (note, I have assumed that Mary and Annemaria are one and the same)

25^th Sept 1707 Elizabeth, daughter of Peter and Mary Gonanon at St Bartholomew the Great, Smithfields (also burial 6^th October 1707)

12^th June 1709 Peter, son of Peter and Mary Gonanon at St James, Clerkenwell

14^th July 1710 Benjamin, son of Peter and Mary Gonanon at St James, Clerkenwell

12^th October 1712 Mary, daughter of Peter and Mary Gonanon at St Dunstans All Saints, Stepney

6^th June 1714 Peter son of Peter and Anna Maria Gonanon at St James, Clerkenwell.

There was a burial on the 17^th August 1714 of a Peter Gonanon at St James, Clerkenwell. This could have been the father or the son born in June. There are no further baptisms so perhaps it was the father.

Again I have not been able to trace any further reference to any of this family (as yet).

I have also found on the 1841 census in Isleworth, Middlesex a Henry and Mary Goninan with two children, Ann and Maria. Looking at the original entry though I am not convinced that it is Goninan. The writing is difficult to interpret.

So in attempting to solve one query I have simply generated more!

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