Success Stories

I always knew that my grandfather was an orphan, so when I started researching my family tree I decided to leave that side of the family until last. What with the surname being Brown, as well, I guessed it was going to be difficult. Having got successfully back on my mother's side to the late 1700s, and also with my paternal grandmother, I thought it was time I embarked on the needle in the haystack job. I found the entry of my grandfather's birth and sent off for the certificate. From the certificate I learnt that he was born in Bromley, London, and his father was a Walter Brown and his mother an Elizabeth Hibbert. I looked at the 1891 census and found a family with the correct people. Father Walter was born in Scotland (how helpful!) and mother Elizabeth was born in London. They had 3 children, Walter, Lily and James (my grandfather). In the 1901 census they were no longer a family, but all in separate institutions, but I still found them all. By now both parents were dead. My next mission was to find the marriage, which after a lot of scouring I did. They married in 1883 in Dover. Walter's father was a Walter Brown - a stonemason, and Elizabeth's was down as David Hibbert, although I later discovered that it was really Daniel, and he had died before she was born. I confirmed this with the 1881 census, where I found both Walter and Elizabeth living in separate places in Dover. Elizabeth was easy to trace back. Her family's roots were in Somerset. Walter was going to prove more difficult, as Scotland is a rather large area. I was heartened by the fact, though, that according to Scottish Origins, there were only 6 Walters, of the right age, whose father was also Walter. Of those 6 only 3 of the fathers were down as Mason, and of those 3, only 2 appeared in both the 1871 and 1881 censuses. Walter Brown, father Walter Brown and Jane Leslie didn't appear on either census, so in the absence of any disproving facts, I have surmised that my great grandfather, Walter Brown was born on 4th February 1861, in Greenside, Edinburgh. Tracking my grandfather's siblings wasn't going to be easy, though, since I had used up the last census - 1901. I turned to the UK website, 'Genes Reunited' and by chance spotted a message posted that looked remarkably familiar. They were asking for a James Brown in Northampton who had a sister, Lily, possibly born in London. I made contact. After a few emails back and forth my counterpart sent me a photograph that turned out to be the whole of my family from about 1960. Success! So, with the aid of Ancestry, initially, and Genes Reunited, in the space of about 3 months I have located a family that neither my two sisters nor I knew existed. And, spookily, my counterpart is only 2 days older than me! Does that count as a success story? Julie Brown