Guild of One-Name Studies
One-name studies, Genealogy
Study: Kenyon
Variants: Kenion, Kinion, Kinyon
Category: 1 - A study where research using core genealogical datasets and transcriptions is in its early stages.
Website: www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Kenyon_Name_Study
DNA website: www.familytreedna.com/groups/kenyon/about
Contact: Mr Bob Kenyon
The Kenyon One-Name Study takes a global look at the surname, from when and where it originated to where it is today.
Bob Kenyon Administrator, Kenyon One-Name Study
My wider interest in the surname began with a brick wall in my paternal line in 2007. At that same time I took my first DNA test, an Oxford Ancestors 12 marker Y DNA test. By researching my own results I discovered the FTDNA Kenyon DNA project and was amazed to find I had a number of matching Kenyon 'cousins' in the USA. Seventeen years on, I still do not have any documentary evidence of the parents of my ancestor James Kenyon, born about 1764 and lived in Chorley Lancashire. However, I have discovered close DNA cousins in the Ribble Valley, Blackburn and Oswaldtwistle and we all had a common grandfather who managed a grain mill on the River Hyndburn in the 16th Century.
That wasn't the end of the story.
I have exchanged information with many Kenyons around the world since 2007. We have jointly discovered how many overseas Kenyon lineages link back to families in Lancashire, England. But, there are many more that we have not yet managed to link with documentary evidence. However, we can show the family links through DNA and predict common grandfathers through the DNA links. There are two major Kenyon DNA lineages dating back to the 13th Century and around another 10 smaller DNA lineages which are much later minor branches of two main DNA lineages.
Looking ahead.
Seventeen years on, it seems a good idea to begin to consolidate what we have learned. And to take a more systematic approach to researching and documenting what we all know about the wider Kenyon family around the world. It is one of the 'larger' surnames to attempt a one-name study and all Kenyon researchers will be encouraged to help with this study.
The first step is to produce a Kenyon One-Name Tree beginning with all the Kenyon families in the UK 1851 census. Kenyon One-Name Tree
All Kenyon families in the UK who can link tree back to the census records should be able to find their link into this tree when all the census families have been entered (about 70% entered at August 2024). Overseas Kenyon families are sometimes more difficult to link back to the UK tree. Contact me and I will prioritise adding your own family tree to this wider Kenyon tree.
Purpose and Goals of the Kenyon One-Name study:
There are several spelling variants of the surname, beginning on top with the most frequent:
Source: from 1880 data of Kenyons in the United States, compiled and analyzed by, Richard R. Kenyon, Ph.D.
There are also many deviant spellings of the name, for example, by census collectors mis-spelling the name and by recent census transcribers misreading the handwriting in the census return. Here are just some of the deviant spellings in the UK 1851 census:
Benyard, Benyon, Flengon, Genion, Hanyon, Hedgon, Henson, Henyan, Henyon, Henyow, Hernton, Kemen, Kemfort Kemper, Kempon, Kengon, Kengow, Kenion, Kennin, Kennyon, Kenoyer, Kenzon, Kernjon, Kerrgan, Kerrigan, Kerryon, Keyan, Keynon, Keyon, Kingan, Kingon, Kinser, Kinyon, Lenyon, Newyon, Penyon, Rayon, Reinnyon, Remon, Rengers, Rengon, Renian, Rennyon, Renyon, Shingon, Tengan, Tharyon, Thengon.
The origin of the name is locative, coming from a specific place. Kenyon is a village, formerly a civil parish, now in the parish of Croft, Warrington, Cheshire, England. It has been speculated that the name is connected to the Bronze Age burial mound that was a prominent feature in the local landscape before it was largely destroyed by ploughing. The name may derive from Cruc meaning mound and Enion a Celtic origin name. So Kenyon could have meant the (burial) mound of Enion or the (burial) mound of the chief.
In more recent history, Kenyon was a village, part of Lowton. It was part of the land holdings of William de Lauton, who granted to his son Jorden, "the whole of the vill(sic) of Kenyon." "In 1256 Jordan de Kenyon gave half a mark for an assize taken before P. de Percy; Orig. 42 Hen. III, m. 11. He was therefore in possession of Kenyon by that time." [1] Jorden changed his surname to "de Kenyon" when he received the lands from his father, and he lived to about 1297. The Kenyon name was handed down to his successive generations.
The second identified Kenyon line may have also originated near or around Kenyon, moving away from the point of origin. It could descend from a family that lived in Kenyon before Jorden de Kenyon adopted the de Kenyon name. The earliest documented Kenyon is a Judge Robert de Kenien. In 1212, Robert received cattle from Adam de Lauton (Jorden de Kenyon's grandfather) 'to appease him' [2].
Source: Name Distribution and Frequency: https://forebears.io/surnames/kenyon#distribution
Kenyon Name Distribution of Head of Households from 1851 England Census. Households with the surname were predominantly located within Lancashire. There also appears to be a thread of Kenyon households southward toward London. (Using Google Maps on the right-hand side)
Kenyon name distribution by county on the 1881 UK census. It can be seen that the dominant counties are Lancashire (4692), Yorkshire West Riding (645), and Cheshire (292).
There is another map for Kenion (not shown here), a variant, with 78 Kenyon individuals, located in Lancashire and Yorkshire.
There is another one for the spelling Kinyon, with 9 individuals, in Lancashire and Yorkshire.
Last, there is one with other variants spellings, many questionable, as to whether Kenyon or a different name altogether.
The 1841 Mapping of Kenyon Surname Concentration(below left) in the UK shows the top four areas including Lancashire (2,462), Yorkshire (396), Cheshire (100), and Sussex (33). There were 10 Kenyons in Flintshire, Wales, and 26 Kenyons in Wigtownshire, Scotland.
The 1851 Mapping of Kenyon Surname Concentration (below right) shows the top four areas including Lancashire (2.759), Yorkshire (388), Cheshire (142), and Sussex (34). Wales had 21 Kenyons, and Wigtownshire, Scotland had 23. Of note the mapping of 1841 and 1851 were surprisingly very similar.
On the left is a map left from Rob Spencer's webpage: http://scaledinnovation.com/gg/gg.html?nm=tools
From the 19th century census, the Kenyon name was predominantly in Lancashire County, with fewer numbers in North Yorkshire and Cheshire Counties.
Source: American Kenyons, Howard N. Kenyon,1935, page 43
Marilyn A. Kenyon, MS, PsyD Administrator, Kenyon DNA Project
My interest in the surname began with a brick wall in my paternal line in 2007. My effort introduced me to Richard Reid Kenyon, PhD, a researcher who spent decades studying Kenyon lines, creating descendant lists, compiling census records for Kenyon males in the United States, and publishing the HNK Supplement, in 1991.[1] He founded the Kenyon Project at Family Tree DNA in September 2005. He provided me with the 1820 and other Federal Census records which he had personally gone through to locate all the Kenyon males he could identify. (Ancestry missed many of these) In 2014, I published my research notes, which detailed my approach to dealing with the brick wall (How do you eat an elephant...?) to narrow down the list of males through the process of elimination until I reached a point of diminishing returns.[2] Despite all my efforts, it wasn't until I turned to Y-DNA testing on March 3, 2008, with my uncle Jim Kenyon that I broke through the brick wall by comparing his DNA with other Kenyon males in the project and recruiting additional Kenyon males to test. The photo to the right shows my family on holiday at Rockaway Beach, Queens, New York circa 1936. My father, Charles is seated at the bottom in the center, and to the right wearing a dark top is my uncle James (Jim) who agreed to do the DNA test.
My father's paternal Kenyon line is part of the Rhode Island Kenyons, whose immigrant ancestor is now believed to have been John Kenyon, born circa 1620, from England who came to Rhode Island before 1650.[3] There was and remains a great deal of confusion surrounding this, as Howard N. Kenyon, author of American Kenyons unfortunately incorrectly identified brothers John and James, as the immigrants.[4] An article in the July 2004 issue of The American Genealogist, by Michael J. Wood, a professional British Genealogist, provided evidence that John and James, whose baptism records were found in the Oldham Parish Church records, by Howard, were not the same John Kenyon and James Kenyon who were in Rhode Island.[5] Later Oldham records show the burials of both John and James in Glodwick, England. Rather, John Kenyon and James Kenyon, brothers, who lived in Rhode Island, were likely born in one of the early colonies in America, not England. It was their father, John Kenyon who was the immigrant progenitor. Finding a record that would conclusively identify John Kenyon as the immigrant to Rhode Island, would, of course, be fantastic. Realistically, that might not happen, as records become scarcer the further back one researches. Even if someone located a potential baptism record, without context, one could easily make the same mistake Howard N. Kenyon made - identifying the wrong person. Building a circumstantial case, using Y-DNA results, to show a paternal relationship going further back after records dry up is a useful alternative. Mapping baptism, marriage, and death locations in England would create a timeline stretching back to when John Kenyon was born. Identifying common matches rules out lineages that don't match. Consequentially, a search for one lineage is a search for all. Identifying all Kenyon lineages gives a clearer picture of when and where each lineage lived. This brings me to my reason for embarking upon a one-name Kenyon study. Understanding the surname means understanding where it came from, and where the name travelled over time, to reach the point where I first started. It's a new journey with new opportunities to discover where my father's family came from and all the other families who share the name, Kenyon.
Until recently, it was generally assumed that there was one Kenyon line in England and all Kenyon males descended from him. The results from Y-DNA proved this assumption to be false. At the FTDNA Kenyon project, we found at least two Kenyon lines in England, unrelated in a genealogically relevant period, co-existing in Lancashire County, England dating from 1200 CE. Robert Kenyon, a researcher proposed two hypotheses: One being that each line started independently. The other one was that there was a very early not the parent expected (NPE).
Purpose and Goals of the Kenyon DNA study:
Results from Y-DNA testing at Family Tree DNA provided information on identifying Kenyon lineages.