Who is good at brick walls?

[Grendlsmother]

have had a fruitless search for Mary Kerr aka Brown on the 1861 Census - she hadn’t been married long by then so goodness knows which name she was using, and as I’ve said before, they are not the best names to search on. Why couldn’t her first name be Adelaide or something like that!

Mind, even if I did find her it might not be of much help in determining the parentage of Jane and Isabella, which is my main problem.

Going back to Jane/Jeannie - she does in later life start using Kerr as a middle name, Kerr is on her death cert, so her children must have known there was something of a mystery. One of her sons married a few days before she died and gives her maiden name as Brown. This same son registered her death and there gives it as Kerr. (Possibly did not want the in-laws to know his mum was illegitimate - how times change). Jane herself had an illegitimate child a couple of years after her husband died and there gives her maiden name as Kerr. Were both girls the children of James Brown and Mary Kerr before this couple married? Or was just one of these people a parent, or were they orphans taken in.

Here are the details of the Kerr household - ‘71 census - what a mixed bunch!

Isabella Kerr 74 (?) Head Wid Moffat DMF
John Kerr 39 son Wid Coal miner Durrisdeer
William Kerr 8 grandson Un Scholar Sanquhar
Hugh Cowan 12 grandson Un Shepherd Sanquhar
William Jamieson 8 grandson Un Scholar New Cumnock
William Kerr 23 grandson UN Railway Lab.Sanquhar
William 23 is on the ‘51 census aged 3 - not sure whose son he is.

William aged 8 born Sanquhar is probably John’s (39) son as there are several births in Sanquhar between 1858 & 1865 to a John Kerr and Martha Turnbull, including a William in 1865 (age is a bit out but nothing unusual there). (unfortunately no Janes or Isabellas in their family who would fit the bill.

Hugh Cowan is Isabella Junior’s son, as is William Jamieson (both illeg and registered in mother’s name - Isabella Kerr. (she is away from home also!).

There does seem to be a New Cumnock connection coming through, Isabella (Brown born c.1858) gives her birthplace as New Cumnock and her “parents” James Brown and Mary Kerr moved to New Cumnock sometime between the ‘61 census and October 1861 (child born there then and another in 1864). 1861 census shows no trace of Mary being there though, either under Kerr or Brown and of course she wasn’t at Sanquhar.

My head is spinning - so I’ll finish for now.

[AndrewP]

Hi Grendlsmother,

Isabella Kerr (age 64) is in Sanquhar on the 1861 census with a daughter and assorted grandchildren - some of them that you found in her household in 1871. Alas, no sign of Mary in that household.

All the best,

AndrewP

[Grendlsmother]

Hi Andrew - I know where Mary was in 1871 (it's '61 I can't find). People are helping me to investigate the wider family to try and get some clue to the birth circumstances of Jane and Isabella - Mary's daughters (or supposed daughters).