Unusual names

[mrnoble]

Hi. I have just got a birth certificate dated 6 May 1859 for George Weakner Brown b South Shields, Parents John Brown and Mary Ann Brown, formerly Hopkee or Kopkee. I have tried all possible spellings for Hopkee and Kopkee in FreeBMD in an attempt to trace the mother to no avail. Any ideas?

[sillgen]

Have you found them in a census?   If you knew where and when she was born you might be able to search for all Mary Ann entries in an earlier census and get her that way.  Laborious but it might work.  Or get a certificate for another child and see if it is written more clearly?
Andrea

[philipsearching]

Can you scan the part of the certificate with Mary Ann's maiden name and post it here?  This may help decipher the name.

Have you tried Hopkin, Hopkins, Hopkirk?

All the best
Philip

[mrnoble]

Hi
Andrea - I have checked all variations I can think of in BMD - I'll try the census' as you suggest.

Phillip - The last two letters are definitely "ee". I dont know how to add a scanned image on  the site?

My interest was drawn to this one by the "Weakner" middle name which is that of my ancestors. Thought it must be a matronym.

Thanks for replies
Michael

[philipsearching]

Hallo, Michael

FreeBMD shows possible marriages for John Brown in the Tyne area:

Mar 1844 South Shields vol 24 p148  same page Mary Ann Forster
Jun 1844 Sunderland  vol 24 p248  same page Mary Hopkins
Dec 1844 Newcastle vol 25 p432  same page Mary Ann Hudspeth
Mar 1845 South Shields vol 24 p152  same page Mary Henderson
Mar 1845 South Shields vol 24 p142  same page Mary Redshaw
Sep 1846 Tynemouth vol 25 p382  same page Mary Ann Hopper
Sep 1849 Tynemouth vol 25 p365  same page Mary Stoker

The "Technical Help" section in the "Common Room" will give guidance on how to attach an image to a message - Rootschatters are very good at deciphering names.

All the3 best
Philip