These two McBrien – Allingham families in evaluation of family relationships. I have written about odd coincidences in genealogy before but this one is much more confusing. So this is just a note to say be careful.
I first encountered the family of John McBrien and Elizabeth Allingham when I expanded my study of the genealogy of the Allingham family of the Glencar area of Killasnet parish in County Leitrim Ireland. The first Allingham record we have of my great grandmother Ruth Allingham is her 1854 marriage in the small Church of Ireland near Glencar Lake (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FG6K-Y74).
In 1856 Elizabeth Allingham (who is probably her sister) married John Mcbrien in the same church (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FGFX-L78).
John McBrien and Elizabeth Allingham had quite a few children in Ireland and then moved to Ontario, Canada. I started tracing some of those children forward a bit in hopes of running into another genealogist who might know a bit more about the Allinghams and McBriens than I did.
I noticed that some traced these families back to John McBrien and Elizabeth Allingham of Donegal. Other had one from Donegal and the other from Leitrim. Both were was unexpected. Was it the same family I was researching? Perhaps they lived in Leitrim for a while, moved to Donegal and then on to Canada. Perhaps there were 2 families with the same names.
So I began to look at more records.
I found these records at IrishGenealogy.ie
Marriage 1873 in Donegal
https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1873/11286/8140160.pdf
Marriage 1856 in Leitrim
https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/files/civil/marriage_returns/marriages_1856/09515/5448812.pdf
Notice the marriages are in different counties and about 17 years apart. The Donegal Elizabeth is a dressmaker and her father Thomas is a fisherman. The Leitrim Elizabeth lists no occupation and her father Thomas is a farmer. Both Johns have a father named John but the Donegal John is a shoemaker but the Leitrim John is a farmer.