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Brinsley is an English surname indicating one's ancestors came from the town of Brinsley in Nottinghamshire, England. According to A Dictionary of English Place-Names by A. D. Mills, the town's name meant "woodland clearing of a man called Brun".

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Perhaps your great-grandparents were fans of the playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan:

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http://www.theatrehistory.com/irish/sheridan001.html