Robert Neilance Brown Bremner b. 1874 Cullen, Bannfshire

[Wilkes_ml]

This isn't really a problem as such - maybe just my over active imagination just looking for a skeleton in the closet when there isn't one!

My great grandfather Robert Neillance Brown Bremner's birth was registered in March 1874 under the name of just Robert Bremner. But he later used the name Robert Neilance Brown Bremner consistantly. At the time of Robert's birth, his mother Isabella was 41-42 , so it's not impossible that she was his mother.

However, when Robert was born, his eldest sister, Margaret was 16, and a year later when just 17 she married a 36 year old Robert Neillans Brown who was a widow with 2 children.

So, how likely is it that Margaret was actually my great grandfather's mother and Robert Neillans Brown was his father?

Is it more likely that my great grandfather was given the additional names when christened? Maybe Robert Neillans Brown was a family friend. I have yet to find any christenings - I only have the Scotland Peoples Birth entries so far.

May be I am just jumping to conclusions here, but I have seen it before in another family where a young daughter got herself "in the family way" and the child was brought up by her parents as if the child was theirs. In large families it was not unusual to "hide" illegitimate children in this way.

My great grandfather left Scotland between the age of 16 and 25 and moved nearly 600 miles to the London area, leaving his family and friends behind in Scotland. he only returned with his wife and children for a few years before returning to Kent. I can not find any reason why he moved to England.

Any views would be welcomed

Thanks,

Michelle

[joette]

I know that when my Great-Grandfather's eldest brother was born a year before the parents married he was named Andrew Scott Young-Mother Christina Young & father William Scott he then became Andrew Scott.It is noted on his death certificate that he was illegitimate & that his Mother subsequently married William Scott.Scottish Law allowed for the legitimising of children through the marriage of the parents as long as they were free to marry at the time of conception.
I have many Moray/Banff rellies who are either using their Fathers names or have the same middle name of a neighbour. Often on Census there is Mother with maiden surname & several offspring oft with several differing surnames.
I assume the middle name was to allow for the dropping of Mother's maiden name without too much comment from others.
Is it possible that Robert Neillans Brown was a friend/rellie of Margaret's parents & perhaps even a Godfather of Robert jun? Did he ever live with Robert/Margaret.?When did his first wife die?What was the cause of death?Could he have been seeking solace in Margarets arms?
My Grandparents as a young married couple had my Granny's two orphaned sisters live with them until they married.
Whilst not impossible for a child to be registered under the name of Grandparents rather than the offspring of his "sister" more usual for them to be registered as her child but raised as the Grandparents child.Especially in a small community where the Registrar may have had personal knowledge of the family.
He probably moved as so many did because there was little work in the Highland s at the time.

[Mary Young]

I would tend to believe that Robert Bremner was child of older couple, John and Isabella Bremner, rather than of their teenage daughter Margaret.
In those days, many women could (and did) continue having children well into their forties, so 41 or 42 wasn't unusual.
And if he'd been child of Margaret Bremner and the widower, Robert Brown, wouldn't she have taken the baby with her when the couple married?
Regarding the move to London - often people moved to find work, and tended to go where they already had family. The 1881 entry for John and Isabella Bremner shows a grandchild, Jessie Bremner, age 2, born London.

[Wilkes_ml]

Yes, Jessie was the daughter of John and Isabella's older son William who was based at Woolwich Barracks, but his wife died soon after the birth of Jessie, and Jessie's father either returned to the Army or back to Scotland, as he was back in Scotland 2 years later in 1883 when Jessie died. However Robert may have visited his brother William at Woolwich Barracks before his brother returned back to Scotland ( William died in Scotland in 1906). Coincidentally maybe, Robert was back in Scotland in 1906 when his daughter died.