MARY BRAND born 1802

[bedfordshire boy]

Finally found who I assume to be Elias and family in 1861, living in Gamlingay, but the page is torn and much of it is missing, and it doesn't seem to be on Ancestry at all (found it on my old CDrom set which was at the back of the cupboard)
RG9/1016 (rest of reference missing)
.....Standing head marr 85 Blacksmith b Berwash Sussex
.....Standing wife 78 laundress b Sussex Walsen? (partly obliterated)
.....Standing dau unmarr 50 laundress b Canterbury
.....A Larkins servant unmarr 22 (female) General servant b Gamlingay

David

[moghouse]

Yes, that would be right.
Barbara his wife was born in Waldron in 1783.
The children were Frances, Henry, Francis, Elizabeth, Charles and William. Charles married Susan Larkins. The three older boys became blacksmiths and Gamlingay was one of their forges (My grandfather did some of his apprenticeship there, as did a certain Mr Dickerson who you may remember)
William did not become a blacksmith, he married "posh" - Leonora Pandora Randolph, and disappeared to London.

Searching IGI, there are more Brands in Cambs than you could shake a stick at! but not in the areas I'm looking at.

[bedfordshire boy]

I think the answer to Mary Brand may come from the Caxton marriage entry. She was consistent in giving Alconbury as her birthplace, yet there are no Brands in the parish register. Even if the family were non-conformist and didn't baptise their children in the established church, you usually find a marriage or burial in the parish register

Leonora Penelope, not Pandora! They moved north after 1881 as in 1891 they were in Elmton, Derbys., and they ended up in Cowpen Northumberland, where they were both living in 1901, William & Penelope + daughter Barbara 38. In 1881 in Marylebone William is described as "Beyond work", and in 1861 in Marylebone as a "luster mounter"

David

[tempsford]

Hi,
From Caxton parish registers
Henry Standen of Arrington married Mary Brand otp  16 Apr 1824.
Wits George Smith and Benjamin Guy.

Tempsford.

[moghouse]

Thank you for the info, Tempsford. I knew that Abraham went to Arrington as an apprentice, but i did not know that Henry had spent time there.

David, Leonora had a string of names just like William had a string of occupations (including Warehouse manager). I have a picture of Leonora - she was one formidable lady - not one to have a blacksmith as a husband!

I knew they finished up in Cowpen (rather ironic) but I did not know about the time in Derbyshire. If I had my time again I think I might be a "Lustre mounter"!

[bedfordshire boy]

Still can't find Mary though!

She's not on Cambs Baptism Index, nor is she on Alconbury parish register. I'm stumped!

Tempsford - can we assume that she was a spinster on marriage? And were the witnesses "regulars" ie officials, rather than friends/relatives of the happy couple?

David

[moghouse]

I have been trying to trace back a Charles Brand who was raising a family in Caxton in 1841. He was the right age to be Mary's brother. This led to Brand families in Fulborn and Elsworth. The Elsworth one has a Mary in the generation before and after our Mary, so it is a possibility.

If Mary followed my mother's generation of Standens, half of them did not like their given names and used something different. My grandfather did not like the name my parents gave me - he said, "That's not a boys name, I shall call him Jim." He never called me anything else but Jim.

[tempsford]

Hi,
There is a cross by Mary's name but not by Henry's.
George Smith seems to be the regular witness but Benjamin Guy was the witness to only this marriage.

Tempsford.

[bedfordshire boy]

Charles Brand gives his birthplace as Fulbourn in 1851, and has a daughter Fanny. There's an 1808 baptism at Fulbourn of Charles, son of William and Frances. But William and Frances only appear to have married in 1807 in Bottisham, a couple of miles from Fulbourn. So I don't think that Mary and Charles were siblings

Thanks Tempsford. That marriage was not as much help as I was hoping. A Benjamin Guy married a widow Hawkins in Waresley in 1828 and may have died in 1840. It seems as though he may have been a family friend on the Standen side, rather than a relative of Mary (I don't buy the change of name because she didn't like her given name which was John!)

David