Family Tree Maker's Genealogy Site: User Home Pages: Grannary, Canada.

Grannary, Canada. Updated September 20, 2007	debcadogan@aol.com
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The purpose of my writing is and has been to find the origin of the Grannary name. To me, it has not been an apparent or common Anglo surname. My family folklore has it that we were Irish immigrants a few hundred years ago. An Irish Herald contacted by me, said that the name was not recorded there from 1850 onward. In searching the archives of Montreal, I found a recorded James GRANARY (with that spelling of surname) having come from Fermanagh, Ireland, to Quebec, Canada, with his wife Elizabeth Collins, in the early 1800's. James was a cloth weaver. This information was found on microfilm. The names of the next generation of Granarys found in these same archives are presumably the offspring of James and Elizabeth, given that they were all in the same time frame, location and archives (there were no records to trace relations, but most Grannarys in Canada today, can be traced to this James and Elizabeth)with exception to just a few. I have possibly traced Granary to be of Granarius/Granerius in Latinized history. From this, Granier/Grenier evolved (1). It was an occupational name (2)- someone who worked or lived by the land or a granary. Not all Graniers/Greniers are therefore related (3). Dr. Murray, in consultation, said " I'm pretty sure that the surname Granarius (Lat.) or Grenier (Fr.) originally referred to someone in charge of a granary, or by extension, food supplies for a town, a ruler or whatever (it's difficult to be more precise)"(4) and "to conclude, it would seem to me that the surname Gran(n)ary most likely derives from the occupational surname Granarius/Granier/Grenier"(5). The name Granarius is noted back in the time of the first Crusade(6). According to information from Dr. Murray, "The Versus de viris illustribus dioecesis Tarvanensis qui in sacra fuere expeditione identifies a Eustace Granarius as a Fleming from the diocese of Thérouanne"(7). DNA (8) reveals for our lineage, a Haplogroup of R1b1c7 which is part of R1b DNA. According to Dr. David Faux(9), found on the internet, "R1b (previously known as Hg1 and Eu18) is the most prolific haplogroup in Europe and its frequency changes in a cline from West(where it reaches a saturation point of almost 100% in areas of Western Ireland) to East (where it becomes uncommon in parts of Eastern Europe and virtually disappears beyond the Middle East). R1b probably arrived in Spain from the east 30,000 years ago among the paleolithic or "old stone age" peoples considered to be aboriginal to Europe. It is believed that everyone who is R1b is a descendant in the male line from an individual known as "the patriarch" since his descendants account for over 40% of all the chromosomes of Europe. This haplogroup is characteristic of the Basques whose language is probably that of the first R1b, and who are genetically the closest to the original R1b population (which probably amounted to only a few thousand individuals)." Our Grannary DNA is within R1b and specifically is R1b1c7, as mentioned. This puts us in the North West Irish model (of DNA) and it has resided in the NW of Ire. for 3000 to 5000 years. Our DNA is incorporated under the Ui Niall clan (10). From the best that I find on the Internet, archives, and web books, I can theoretically line our NW Irish DNA up with the lines of Grenier. At our origin of being Celt however, I think it feasible to look at a line out of the Ui Niall clan. Sources: (1-7) Dr. A.V. Murray, (9) Dr. David Faux, (8&10) Family Tree DNA and (W)R.Grannary, brother.

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