Spelling variation of either of these names, register with rootschat ( Uk based message board) and have a look onthe surname list, where in the Midlands are you researching East Mid or West Mids.......on the last weblink I gave you are some resources for Rutalnd ( East Mids) in the documents page aand some of the links will help you freebmd, freereg, freecen
Farnan
Recorded as Farnan, Farnin, Farning, Farnon, Farahan, Farriname, Farnane, Fernan, Fernon and probably others, this is claimed to be a surname of Irish origins. This may well be so, although there is just a possiblity that it may be French, and a variant of Faron or Farnoux, a nickname surname for a miller of flour. What is certainly true is that it has been recorded in Irish church registers since the Stuart period as shown below, and it has been claimed that a family called Farnon of Ardstraw in County Tyrone held the position of erenagh since medieval times. This was a heriditary title for people responsible for the maintenance and operation of church lands, which may include farms as well as the church itself and houses associated with it. However we have not been able to prove this assertion. The surname appears to be first recorded in the church registers of Dublin in 1685 when Mary Farahan as spelt, married one William Hamilton at St Andrews Dublin, and in London Francis Farnan married Margaret Fitzhenry, as Irish a surname as you can get, at St Pancras Old Church, on October 28th 1771. The name in any form that we can recognise does not seem to have been recorded in the surviving church registers of the city of London before that date, some five hundred years after the original creation of surnames. This would suggest that it is either or a non - English origin, or the original spelling has been transposed.
Farnham
This interesting and unusual name is of Medieval English origin and is locational from places so called in Berkshire, Dorset, Essex, Suffolk, Surrey, Yorkshire and Northumberland. All the places except Northumberland derive from the Old English "fearn", fern and "hamm", a low lying meadow, thus a meadow where ferns grew. The earliest recordings of these place names are as follows; Ferneham (Domesday Book of 1086 Berkshire) Phernham (Domesday Book, Essex) Farnham (Domesday Book, Suffolk) Fearnhamme (The Anglo Saxon Chronicle 894, Surrey) Farneham (Domesday Book, Yorkshire). However, Farnham in Northumberland is first recorded as Thirnum (fees 1242) and is a derivation of the Old English pre 7th "thyrne" thorn bush, and "hamm", meadow. One, Edward Farnham married Katherine Higgons, London, 1665. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John de Farnam, which was dated 1324, in Yorkshire, during the reign of King Edward 11 known as "Edward of Caernafon", 1307 - 1327.
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