As anyone who has found this profile probably knows, Faragher is a Manx name. It is one of several unusual surnames originating from the Isle of Man, where it is still a common name. All Faraghers worldwide are likely to have a Manx ancestor.

My maternal grandfather is George Faragher. George spent his adult life as a policeman in Cleveleys, Lancashire, but was born and raised in the Isle of Man, and remained a proud Manxman. The island can be seen on a clear day from Cleveleys promenade. In my teens I was given a copy of ‘The Faraghers of the Ayre’, researched and self-published in 1970 by Douglas Crebbin Fargher, a distant cousin, and distributed to all his known relatives. This is ‘Three Hundred Years in the story of a Manx Family; an account of the ancestry and progeny of Charlie Breaghagh Fargher’. Charlie was our great great grandfather, born in 1828.

I retired in 2023 and began to research my Manx family history, using this book as my starting point. It is so much easier now than it must have been for Douglas back in the 1960’s. I discovered the Guild and realised that it would be worth expanding my research into a One-Name Study.

I have started by attempting to find all Faraghers and Farghers born in the Isle of Man since 1800. I will try to put them into family groups. I will then move off the Island, to the UK and further afield, and go back in time on the Island. As with Ireland, there is a strong tradition of leaving the IoM in search of a better life, and many Faraghers have emigrated.

I have only just begun, but the aims of my study are:
To collect and index all references to the surname and its variants worldwide.
To provide relevant information to any Faragher researchers and give whatever help I can.
I know this will be a marathon and not a sprint!

If you are a Faragher of have a Faragher ancestor, I would love to hear from you. If anyone is researching a name of Manx origin, I would love to hear from you also.

I have registered: • Fargher. This is almost as frequent as Faragher. The records of some people give both Fargher and Faragher throughout their lives. Douglas said ‘I spell my name Fargher because my father and grandfather did so, yet on my father’s birth certificate it is given as Faragher!’.

• Farragher. One hypothesis is that this was recorded as such due to Manxmen moving off the island and still rolling their 'r's', and became a variant rather than a deviant. Ffaragher/Ffarger is an early spelling, but I have not included it as I have yet to find anyone living with this variant. I may add other variants as I find them. The Scottish Farquar has a similar distant origin, but I am not researching this name.

There is general agreement that the name is Irish Gaelic, a shortened Anglicised form of Ó Fearchair ‘descendant of Fearchar’ a Gaelic personal name meaning ‘dear man beloved’ or ‘loving’.

Anyone researching their Manx ancestors will be aware of Manx National Heritage. This excellent registered charity looks after the Island’s historic buildings, landscapes, archives and the national museum collections. The People section of the iMuseum digital collection is a great resource. The Isle of Man has taken its own census 1841-1921, on the same day as the England and Wales census. There was no 1939 Register. The website ManxBMD is easily searchable and sortable, including by Parish. This is where I have started my data collection. I will add any interesting sources outside the IoM as I find them. I am using Family Historian for this project. My personal website including many Faraghers is on Ancestry.