Who was Alice Brown’s mother?
Q I’m trying to find the birth record of my grandmother Alice Brown, who I believe was born in Manchester. We always celebrated her birthday on 15 July. Based on her marriage certificate, she was born in 1891 and her father was George Brown, coachman. In 1901, she was living in Derby with her “grandmother” Hannah Bruerton (née Hicklin). However, I’m not convinced that Hannah was her real grandmother as she married into the family in 1874 and none of her children with John Bruerton would have been old enough to be mother to my grandmother. Mike Coomber
A Even when evidence seems not to fit, we shouldn’t dismiss it. In 1901, Alice was recorded as Hannah’s granddaughter, so we should look closely at that.
Although it’s true that the only surviving child of John Bruerton and Hannah would have been too young to have had a child in 1891, there are other possibilities.
Hannah was about 38 years old when she married John Bruerton, and a spinster. He was a widower who already had children (who you should look at carefully to see if any of them could be one of Alice’s parents), but did Hannah herself already have a child?
Before the marriage, Hannah worked as a cook in domestic service, so would have found it difficult to bring up a child herself. However in 1871, while she was working at a vicar’s house in Lancashire, her parents Samuel and Elizabeth Hicklin have their seven-yearold granddaughter, Elizabeth C Hicklin, living with them in Stenson, Derbyshire. This child appears in the 1864 birth indexes as Elizabeth Cowles Hicklin. No mother’s maiden name is listed, suggesting she was illegitimate, but the unusual middle name might point to her father’s possible identity. The Twyford and Stenson baptism register confirms that she was the daughter of Hannah Hicklin.
By 1881, Elizabeth was working in service, and would have been about 27 when Alice Brown was born. Alice could have invented the father’s details she gave when she married, but she is consistently recorded as Brown. So although his lack of signature doesn’t prove he was deceased, he may well have existed.
Is it possible that Elizabeth Hicklin had a child by a coachman called George Brown? She is difficult to find after 1881, but that is where I suggest you focus your research.
Antony Marr