Please help me find Grandad!.....

[elsiegee1]

My grandfather, John Browne Gillan, was born around 1902, but I can't find his birth cert.

He was married 01/03/1930 in England (Coventry) to Evelyn Annie Smith, who was born in 1909. On his marriage cert it sayshe was 28, and his father was called Hugh Gillan, an Iron worker, and spells the Brown without the E.
Hugh (GillEn) has been found in the 1901 census as being in Middlesborough with his parents, all of them having been born in Ireland. But I don't know if this is the correct one - I need to find his birth cert.

My aunt is convinced John was born in Glasgow, which makes things even more difficult. I'm thinking that maybe the parents weren't married which would mean his mother was called Brown/e.

Please can anybody help
thanks
elsiegee

[Tom-W]

Not sure if this one can be any connection?:

There is a couple called Hugh Gillan & Mary Browne married in Anderston, Glasgow in 1878. Hugh is a rivetter - could that fit with your ironworker? They are both 20 so could have had a child c1900.

Mary died in 1921 in Yoker and her death was registered by a daughter Nellie or Millie (?) Browne Gillan.

Tom

[Tom-W]

A little more digging on this family. In 1891 they are in Partick with children Hugh 12, Nicholas 11 (named after Mary's father), Ann 9, Mary 8 Francis 4 and Amelia(not sure of age).

In 1901 they are in Yoker with children Hugh 22, Nicholas 20, Annie 19, May 15, Francis 14, Amelia 12, William 9, Agnes and John age 2 who was born in Yoker. That makes him born c1898 and about 4 years older than you think he should be but lots of people didn't give their exact age on certificates.

Tom

[elsiegee1]

That is great Tom.
I've never found any other Browne Gillans anywhere so I guess that must be it. Does it say anywhere whether the children are Gillans or Browne Gillans? I ask because some of my aunts/uncles are just Gillan and some are Browne Gillan on their birth certs.

The only thing that is bugging me is the age difference, it clearly states his age as 28 on his marriage cert... maybe he made it up as his wife was only 20!?

Also, how do I go about getting certs in Scotland? I've only done English research up to now.

Thanks for your help Tom.


elsiegee

[Tom-W]

You'll be able to access birth, death and marriage certificates at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk

There's lots of help available on the site and if you get stuck ask the people here.

I wouldn't get too stuck on his age - I'm sure lots of us have found ancestors shaving a few years off their real age.

I did a search on SP for Gill?n (wildcard covers variants like Gillon) as surname and Brown* as firstname. That shows up certs for Annie Brown Gillan in 1885 and Amelia Brown Gillan in 1889, both in Partick. A similar search for deaths shows Amelia Brown Gillan died in 1954 in Carluke. So it looks like other family members certainly had the Brown middle name. In my own family I've found that people often used middle names e.g. on their marriage certificates, even though they weren't actually on their birth certs.

Can you see any common links between the names in this family and your own? If you had a Nicholas or Amelia that would be good evidence of a link. Also Scots tend to use naming patterns (but not always!) so if your eldest uncle was Hugh and second eldest aunt Mary then that would fit this family.

Regards
Tom

[CatrionaL]

Hi Elsie

And a warm welcome to Talking Scot.

You can look for the certificates on ScotlandsPeople and see them online as well as download them for a small fee.

http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/

Best wishes

Catriona

[elsiegee1]

Thanks both, I'll check on there.

I can't see any immediate connections, only John (who was often called Jack).
John and Evelyn had around 12 children, and put all apart from one in children's homes. It seems they got together every year or so and then split up again, so it doesn't seem that they were too bothered about traditions, even though they were officially Roman Catholic.

Oh, one other thing, someone said to me that there may be a connection with a shipbuilding company, probably the Brown side, but you know how chinese whispers goes....

thanks again
elsie

[DavidWW]

Bear in mind that, for the census, 1 year and several months might be rounded up to 2 years of age.

Yoker is an interesting place as there isn't a specific registration district, and I'm not sure which would be the one to look at .....


http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/scotgaz/towns/t ... t2527.html
Yoker
Glasgow City
A western suburb of Glasgow at the eastern end of Clydebank, Yoker lies on the north bank of the River Clyde, 5 miles (8 km) northeast of the city centre. From the 14th century a ferry linked Yoker with Renfrew on the south bank. A whisky distillery was established here in the late 18th century and in 1877 Napier Shanks and Bell opened the 'Yoker Old' shipyard. The arrival of the railway and the deepening of its offshore waters from the 1880s encouraged the building of larger vessels. Motor vehicles and tramcars were also manufactured in Yoker which is now an operations centre for Glasgow's suburban rail service. By the 1980s shipbuilding had largely disappeared, but the last remaining Clyde ferry still crosses from Yoker to Renfrew, a ferry having operated this route since the 14th Century.

David

[elsiegee1]

brilliant ! thanks David!!