Researched and Compiled by William J. Dorgan III
Despite the claims of some historians regarding the Irish and Viking Discoverers of North America, nobody knows for certain when the first European fishermen visited what is now the eastern Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland.
Vague but unproven traditions suggest that mariners from Bristol may have been visiting the offshore fishing grounds, and perhaps coming ashore for wood, food and water, long before John Cabot's voyage in 1497.
This is what's known for certain: western European fishermen were quick to exploit the resources reported by Cabot. Within a decade or so of his voyage, vessels from Portugal, Spain, the Basque country, France and West Country England were exploiting the vast cod stocks reported to exist off the coast of the "New-founde-land."
These early western European fishermen also named and mapped many of the bays, coves, islands and inlets along its rugged coastline.
Initial attempts at permanent settlement in Newfoundland met with failure or very limited success. Widely regarded as just a "fishing station", Newfoundland was a place to be exploited during the warmer five or six months of the year, but quickly left behind when the first signs of a equally long, but cold and unforgiving winter appeared.
Irish from Wexford and Waterford were known in New Foundland since the early 17th century when they referred to it as 'Talmhain na Iascarigh', or in English: "The Land of the Fishes'. They went there to fish the Grand Banks and either usually returned to home ports or stayed there and became domiciled.
According to "The Oxford Companion to Irish History," ed. S. J. Connolly: Fishermen from the SE of Ireland began to travel regularly to the rich fishing grounds off Newfoundland from the second half of the 17th century.
In the first decades of the 19th century the long-standing connections established by seasonal and temporary migration provided the basis for a wave of permanent emigration. An estimated 30-35 thousand people, drawn overwhelmingly from Waterford and its hinterland, settled in Newfoundland 1800-30, giving its popular culture and spoken English a distinctive flavour.
READ ABOUT NEWFOUNDLAND
Jim Lane, an Internet friend, in an email dated 1 July 2005 wrote:
“Bill, back in the early1960's when my uncle was getting ready to come to the States he went to the Dept. of Vital Records and they told him that there were no O'Brien’s on the Southern Shore that they were all Brien's. My grandfather was from Trepassey and he always said that the name was Brien and that when the Nun's came over from Ireland they put the “O” on Brien and the “O” on Neill from Long Beach. However, half of my uncles go by Brien and the other half go by O'Brien.”
Blanche McCarthy, a wonderful source of information.also emailed me:
"O" wasn't used in names until the late 1800s (about late 1880s the "O" started to be used for some names, and by 1900 quite a few had the "O" added. But in the early years it wasn't. I was an O'Keefe. But the "O" is in only a few of the records. And no consistency either. One child's baptism would have the "O" and the next child wouldn't. By the way my father doesn't have the "O" in his name (born 1911), but all us kids do!! His brother (born 1915) does have it. Go figure!!"
I have decided to use the name O’BRIEN throughout this family project. Just keep in mind that they were always known as the BRIEN Family in Newfoundland and the O’BRIEN Family in the States.
BRIEN, as a surname, and its variants found in England, Scotland, Ireland and France, derives from a Breton personal name containing the element bri - height, dignity, esteem (Dauzat, Black), or from a " Keltic (Old Welsh/Irish) name containing the element bre - hill" (Cottle), of similar form and significance.
BRYNE according to MacLysaght and Reaney.
BRIAN or BRYAN, as a baptismal name, has from early times been a favorite in Ireland on account of the national hero Brian Boroimhe; but it was, during the Middle Ages, equally popular in England ... [when] for several centuries it was a favorite, as the many common surnames derived from it testify ... it survived in Yorks [hire] Westmoreland, Cheshire, Lanc [ashire] until the 18th century, but gradually fell into disuse and came to be regarded exclusively as an Irish name. It is still used in Brittany and “has come back into use in England during the present century" (Withycomb).
Reaney gives twelve variants for BRIEN as a family name in England. He maintains that in the south it is a Breton personal name introduced by the Normans, and, according to Black, "by Bretons who among the Normans in the invasion of England", but in the north "it is O[ld] Ir [ish] Brian, bought by Norsemen from Iceland ... to Cumberland and across the Pennines into Yorkshire."
In Scotland, Black cites the forms Brian, Brien and Bryan, and ascribes the Breton origin to them, as does Dauzat for the French forms Brian, Briand, Briant, Briend.
In Ireland, MacLysaght sees the family O'Brien, Ó Briain "deriving from the family of King Brian Boru", but notices that O'Brien may also be a synonym of O' Bryne (SEE BRYNE), of Bryan, and of MacBryan, Mac Braoin. MacLysaght found O'Brien "now very numerous in other provinces as well as Munster, being the fifth most numerous name in Ireland" and Bryan "The name of a prominent Anglo-Norman family settled in Co. Kilkenny", and MacBryan, sometimes changed to O'Brien in Cos. Fermanagh and Cavan.
Guppy traced Bryan widespread, especially in Leicestershire and Rutlandshire and Oxfordshire, Bryant especially in Somerset and Wiltshire. Spiegalehalter traced Brian, Bryan(t) in Devon. Matthews traced Brien, Bryan in Ireland, Devon and Dorset. Briant and Bryant in Devon.