Moville.Records

Other.Information

Old photographs Old photos of Moville and the surrounding areas.

Maps Old maps of the two parishes in Moville.

Books Read a history of Moville, and see other references to the area.

Lewis' Topographical Dictionary Extracts from the Topographical Dictionary published in 1837

FHC Records Family History Centre (LDS) film references for Moville records

Moville.Records

Denis and Winnie Hernan, Denis Foley, Charles and Pat Hernan

the.hernan family

HERNAN names, by event.
HERNAN names, in alphabetical order.

Notes on these records

These pages contain all the information available about the Hernan family of Inishowen, which can be found in the Registers of Births, Marriages and Deaths in Ireland between 1864 and 1900. These indicies contain a note of the event, and the reference number needed to obtain a formal birth,marriage or death certificate.

These pages cover the events which occurred in the Inishowen Registration District. This information was researched through the Church of the Latter Day Saints online index to Irish Births, Marriages and Deaths between 1864 and 1958.

The birth and marriage records cover those exact years. However, the death records cover those who died during this period, and those who were born during the period, and died subsequently in Inishowen. The death records cover the period 1786 to 1957, but outside the core dates of 1864 to 1900 are not necessarily complete. These records will enable researchers to go back further in time than the Catholic Parish records (started in 1847) and the Civil records (1864) in their quest for family information.

Care should be taken in relying on the ages quoted on the death certificates death, and estimated year of birth. They are only estimates. For example, the record for Charles Hernan states that he died in 1871 aged 85 – making his year of birth about 1786. His gravestone, in St Marys, Ballybrack, gives his year of birth as 1791. Which record is correct? No one now knows!

Please also bear in mind that although the requirement to register births, marriages and deaths became a legal requirement in 1864 it was not strictly obeyed, particularly in rural districts, for a number of years!

Hernan family history

In the nineteenth century, the Hernan family was one of the most prominent families in Moville. With certainty, the family can be traced back to Charles Hernan, who was born in 1791, and who today rests in the churchyard at St Mary’s, Ballybrack. Tradition tells of another generation back, to Robert Hernan, who was born in 1760.

Within the family, there is a strong oral tradition that the original Hernan came from Spain with the Armada of 1588, and that one of the survivors of a great wreck, a soldier or sailor called Hernandez, took to the Inishowen hills to avoid capture by the English. He married a local girl, and over time, the family name became Hernan.

The tradition is very strong, and has existed far back in living memory. But it is impossible to prove. Certainly, wrecks of Armada vessels litter the Donegal coastline, including the remains of one of the Armada’s largest troopships, the Trinidad Valencera. This wreck, in Kinnagoe Bay, (in Glennagivney in the Parish of Moville) was discovered only in 1971, and adds some credibility to the time honoured Hernan family legends.

The earliest possible reference to the Hernan name is two listings for Drmond and Shan "O'Henan" in the Hearth Money Rolls of 1665. They lived in the townlands of Bellgrittan (Ballyrattan) and Crehenan (Crehennan), respectively, in the parish of Moville Upper.

By the time of the earliest of the currently remaining land records, the Tithe Applotment Lists (1825), the Hernan family are found as farmers on the borders of the townlands of Carrowtrasna and Stroove. They were also recorded here, too, in 1857 in the Primary Valuation of Tenements (“Griffiths Valuation”). The name was always written as “Harland” or “Hirlin”, possibly a phonetic interpretation of the strong local accent.

Over the years, the Hernan surname has disappeared from Moville, and the last of this fine family, Charlie Hernan, died in the Nazareth House in Derry in 2005. Many family descendants remain in the Moville area, but having intermarried, have lost the Hernan surname.

There is also a thriving branch of the Hernan family in Australia, particularly around Melbourne, Victoria. They are descended from Charles Hernan (the son of the first Charles Hernan), who was born in Inishowen about 1830, and emigrated about 1850.

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