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Author: hsctem
Surnames:
Classification: queries
Message Board URL:
http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.canning/311.1.2/mb.ashx
Message Board Post:
Pursuing research into my Cannon family line I found variants of this name were common.
My g.g.grandfather, John Cannon, had a son, William Cannon, born 1797 at Lisburn, County
Antrim. At christening William's children were christened Canning except for two who
were recorded as Cumming. Following marriage some of the children kept the Canning name
and others became Cannon. One of them, James Canning, was recorded as Cunning at marriage.
I found other examples of the variant problem in other families.
Martin Canning of Belfast had three children, one was Canning and two were Cumming. Edward
Cummin of Comber was also recorded as Camman and Cumming in the records of his children.
James Canning of Comber had a number of children one of whom was Cumming. James Cumming of
Comber had five children one of whom was Cammin. John Canning of Lisburn had three
children, two of whom were Cumming. William Canning of Ballymacarret was William Cammer in
the christening records of his children, except for one who was Cannin, but all were
Canning in the civil register. Hugh Canning of Belfast was also Hugh Cunning in the
records of his children. In the Newtownards records Hugh Canning of Crossnamuckley was
also Hugh Cunning and Hugh Cunning of Greengraves was also hugh Cumming. These names were
found in the marriage records of their daughters.
John Cuming of Unicarvil who died in 1797 left a will in which he listed bequests to his
father Thomas Cumming and four brothers whose names were Cummin. He was obviously aware of
the differences in the names but probably decided not to alter them because this was how
their names appeared on their legal documents.
In the old records the names were often so scribbled that it is sometimes difficult to
decide if a name is Canning , Cunning, or Cumming. The letter 'a' was sometimes
left open so it looked liked 'u' and the 'n' looked like 'm'. This
may explain how the variants of the Canning name originated.
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