brown/lebrun

[luckydog]

I am currently researching Stephen Lebrun born 6th November 1882 in Edinburgh, died 11th January 1951in Edinburgh.
He married Margaret Helen Ferguson Bell on the 28th July 1903 in Edinburgh. She is my gg grandmothers daughter to her first husband.
On their marriage certificate his parents are given as Adam Le Brun, Joiner, Deceased and Elizabeth Farquhar , Deceased.
However prior to the marriage of Stephen and Margaret the family were called Brown and came from Dirleton, east Lothian. Marriage and birth records on FS and census records on A......y back this up. Having said that his birth certificate has him as Stephenson Lebrun and his parents as Lebrun.
Some of the family became Undertakers and Stephen was a Coach Painter.
Did they change the name as an affectation to make them stand out from other tradesmen or is there an older French connection.
Mike

[KirstyG]

Hi Mike

I am wondering, did Stephen put down his grandparent's names when he married. I am seeing a marriage for Adam Brown and Elisabeth Farquhar 1833 Dirleton and subsequent children to them on the IGI, or is that just a coincidence?

There is another Le brun family on the IGI in Edinburgh in the 1870s, although by the looks of the father's middle name he may have been French.

If you post a few more details of what you have it might prevent duplicate searches and confusion

Kirsty

[luckydog]

Hi Kirsty

I have being doing a bit more digging and Stephens birth certificate gives his parents marriage date as 3rd January 1865. His parents marriage certificate has George Guillame Lebrun 20 Cabinetmaker and Christina Macdonald 20 .

Stephens grandparents are given as Adam Le Brun joiner deceased and Elizabeth Le Brun ms Farquhar deceased.
Christinas parents are Donald Macdonald and Marion Mackay.
 
All of this tallies with the 1881 census which has Marion as the head of the household and George Guillame Le Brun 37 Undertaker born in Dirleton, Haddingtonshire.

I have also found a marriage proclamation for Adam Brown and Elizabeth Farqhuar dated 8th June 1833 and another proclamation for the next day in Edinburgh with no objections.This seems to tally with Georges birth about 1844 in Dirleton.

On Georges death certificate his father is Adam Lebrun , no details for his mother,  his age is 69 and his occupation is Organ Builder.

Mike



So at some point Adam Brown becomes Adam Le Brun

[KirstyG]

Ahhhh, that makes more sense!

It was the family of George and Christina to which I refered before as living in Edinburgh. The middle name of Guillame made me think he was french, I think that's french for William.

George seems to have a sister Marion b. 1835 Dirleton.

This would fit with an 1841 census entry on FreeCen with them at Gullane. Head of household is Margaret Brown aged about 55. Adam Brown is a Joiner aged about 30.

Kirsty

[KirstyG]

I have being doing a bit more digging and Stephens birth certificate gives his parents marriage date as 3rd January 1865. His parents marriage certificate has George Guillame Lebrun 20 Cabinetmaker and Christina Macdonald 20 .

No wonder I couldn't find it before. I was searching by George's name. IGI has him as

GEORGE S. GUILLAUME LE BRUM 

I wonder how many times this family is mistranscribed?

There is an extracted marriage entry in Edinburgh 1806 for a Samuel Le Brum.  Another relation?

[KirstyG]

Interestingly it would appear that Dirleton is another of the parishes where the LDS folk only entered the female birth/christening entries. Batch    C117052     1664-1820

SP has a birth/baptism of an Adam Brown in Dirleton 30th December 1806. If he is your man then he was not born Le Brun...

SP only get matches for Le Brun in 1881 and 1891 census records (7 in each, so probably George and family),
1 match OPR Marriages
5 SR marriages 1855-2006
16 SR Births 1855-2006
11 SR deaths 1855-2006

It is starting to look as though they chose to change their names.

I have seen other occasions where the names are recorded in Latin for official purposes but that has tended to be university matriculations.

Kirsty

[luckydog]

Hi Kirsty,

that all fits. I looked up the 1841 census on A......y and it all comes together i.e occupations, possible birth dates, and family names.

I think it is interesting that post 1881 all the family including offspring are calling themselves Lebrun. This choice of name carried on well into the 20th century. I think there are descendants with that name around today.
Stephen Lebruns death certificate has him and his father as Brown . However two of his sons that I know off were christened as Lebrun and both were recorded on their death certificates as Lebrun.
Historically I believe there has been a Lebrun presence in East Lothian since the 1500's and they were landowners. Whether my lot were from that family I may never find out. I suspect they took on the French spelling of Brown as a means to get on in the world. That they also took on French spellings of their first and middle names shows a real attempt at disguising a very non French background.
Meanwhile I will continue to attempt to push the dates further back. Will also try to connect Samuel Le Brun.
Mike

[Yaris]

Hi Mike, I have a Lebrun family tree, Stephenson Lebrun changed his name to Brown but the rest of the family kept the name Lebrun and the name still carries on today, unfortunately as to where the name originates we are no further back in the search than Adam Lebrun. Looking forward to hearing from you. Anne

[luckydog]

Hi Anne
my connection with the Lebrun family is through my great aunt Margaret Helen Ferguson Bell or Hooper ( her father was Thomas Bell but he died while she was quite young and her mother married Francis Hooper ). Margaret married Stephen Lebrun on the 28th July 1903 and they had two children that I know of , George William Lebrun and Frank Hooper Lebrun.
I have not gone further back than Adam Lebrun and Elizabeth Farquhar. Will do some more digging on the origins of the name and will let you know what I find.
Am interested in any information you have on Stephen and Margaret.
Mike