help me please!!!.....

[laura140281]

I really hope someone is able to help me. I have heard conflicting stories about my relatives from edinburgh and I am completely confused and have hit a brick wall in my family tree. My great, great grandfathers family were from edinburgh. Their surname was Bertram. Apparantly they were very wealthy and one if not more were surgeons and/or musicians. There are two conflicting stories about the Bertrams:
1. The son of the Bertram family got the serving girl pregnant. His father paid the gamekeeper John Hooper (born about 1852) to marry the serving girl and look after the baby allowing the baby to keep the Betram name. John Hooper and the serving girl moved to Newcastle or Durham. The baby was named John Bertram and born about 1877.

2. The son of the Betram family (john as above) got the serving girl pregnant and wanted to marry her but his father thought he was marrying beneath him. His father disowned him and he came to Newcastle or Durham. He married the girl in either scotland or england. The girls name was Elizabeth Aitken.
I would really appreciate any help you can give me. Thanks in advance for any replies.

[Laura]

Hi Laura,

What information led you back to the Bertram brick wall?

Regards,
Laura

[AnneM]

Hi

Don't know if this is any help or if you have this already but in 1881 at 30 Neasham Street, Stockton on Tees Durham there is the following family:

John Hooper Head Marr Male 29 Alnwick, Northumberland, Boiler Smith's Labourer

Isabella Hooper Wife Marr Female 29 Scotland

John Bertram Hooper Son Male 4 Sunderland Durham

Jane Pattison Servant Female 14 Hartlepool Durham

Worth a bit more of a look see if you ask me with the combination of the names Hooper and Bertram and a mother born in Scotland.

Anne

Hey just realised this is my 100th post. Pleased that it just may help validate a family legend!

[laura140281]

Thanks for the replies! I have seen the 1881 census with the hoopers at 30 neasham street in Alnwick. This is one of the reasons why I feel I have hit a brick wall. John Hooper is shown to be married to an Isabella Hooper but his wife in the 1901 census is Elisabeth. I cannot find any info to suggest that John and Isabella got divorced and as far as I can be certain John and Elizabeth Hooper married in 1879 two years after the birth of John Bertram. My other problem is that I know for certain that John Hooper was born in Scotland and the 1881 census shows he was born in England! This leads me to think it must be John Bertram who got the serving girl pregnant but the 1901 census shows that John Betram is John Hoopers step-son! I am completely baffled the story having been passed down through the years seems to have become twisted along the way and I am very eager to get past this stumbling block! Any suggestions would be really appreciated.

[AnneM]

Hi Laura

What I think would be most helpful would be a note of what you know for definite and your reasoning for thinking that way, i.e. who was definitely born where and when, married whom where and when and what is your evidence for that. Even if it seems long winded I think it will help clear the confusion.

Anne