Q & A
Our team of experts offers tips and inspiration EDITED BY CLAIRE VAUGHAN
DAVE ANNAL is a genealogist, author and lecturer
KATHERINE COBB is a member of AGRA based in Somerset
CHRIS PATON is a genealogist and author who blogs at scottishgenes. blogspot.com
JAYNE SHRIMPTON is a professional dress historian and portrait specialist
ALAN STEWART is a family history writer, and author of Grow Your Own Family Tree
STEVE THOMAS is a genealogist with over 20 years’ experience
PHIL TOMASELLI is a military family history expert and author
Have I got the right parents for my Robert Brown?
Q My ancestor Robert Brown, a physician and surgeon, was 50 in the 1851 census and recorded as born in Preston, Lancashire. I think he was the son of Thomas (from Bolton-by-Bowland, Yorkshire) and Ellen (née Holgate), and baptised in Preston on 14 September 1800. One of his sons had the middle name Holgate, and Robert had been apprenticed to a friend of the family near Skipton, Yorkshire. Thomas and Ellen’s other children were baptised in Bolton-by-Bowland, so why was Robert born in Preston?
Hugh Casement
A Robert’s age and birthplace in the 1851 census have led you to a very promising baptismal record, but is the baptism of Robert Brown at Preston on 14 September 1800 the right one? The fact Robert used Ellen’s maiden name Holgate as a middle name for one of his sons strengthens the theory.
Or could the Preston Robert be part of another family? A search of the Preston parish registers 10 years either side of 1800 doesn’t turn up any potential siblings. It does, however, reveal a record of the burial in 1802 of a 42-year-old Thomas Brown, a strong candidate for Robert’s father.
For our theory to hold water, we need evidence that Thomas was no longer in Bolton-by-Bowland by 1800, and searching Land Tax records provides an answer. We can find Thomas in 1798, living in Bolton and occupying a property owned by Lawrence Fearnside, but by 1799 the same property is now owned by Robert Ellis and described as “late Fearnsides”.
Lawrence Fearnside married Elizabeth Holgate (a relative of Ellen’s?) in 1764, and this is where it gets interesting, because Lawrence and Elizabeth had a son called Lawrence – and the younger Lawrence became a surgeon, in Preston! Of course this isn’t proof of a link to your Robert Brown, but it’s definitely worth following up.
I suggest that you continue reconstructing the Bo
