Of course you can, the short answer would be "no connection at all" but please let me explain! My paternal great grandmother was Olivia nee Brider and because the Brida/Bryda/Brider/Bryder name is so rare I've amassed a great deal of information about the family and have a very detailed tree going back to 1781. The only piece of information I still lack after some 30 years of research is the marriage of Thomas Dowsett Brider and Emma McDowall. The following is an extract from an article that was published in the journal of the East Surrey FHS - when you get to the end of it you'll find the explanation for my interest in Sarah Ann's mother Emma who was, of course, nee McDowall
Thomas Dowsett Brider’s birth was registered 1845/DEC in Lambeth, his parents being Thomas (born 1815) And Mary Ann nee Dowsett. Thomas was with his family in Lambeth at the time of the 1851 census but, as far as I can tell, he’s missing from the 1861, 1871 and 1881, possibly, like one of his brothers, he'd left home and become a sailor, after all he would have been 16 by the time of the 1861 census!
The birth of Thomas and his wife Emma’s first known child, Rebecca Annie, known as Annie, was registered 1882/SEP in York when her surname was given as Bryder. Thomas and Emma went on to have six more children who were all registered in Newcastle upon Tyne apart from one who was registered in Gateshead. The surnames of the two who immediately followed Annie were, like hers, recorded as Bryder. At the time of the 1891 census the family were living in Gateshead and Thomas was described as “excavator” and in 1901 Thomas, described as “watchman” was with his family in Elswick, Newcastle, but without Emma who had died in 1900. By 1911 Thomas was living in “an institution” in Elswick. There is confusion over his age and also his birthplace has been wrongly given as Lincoln
Despite my very best efforts I’ve not been able to find the marriage of Thomas and Emma, the search being made even more difficult by confusion over Emma’s maiden name. The new GRO index which gives mothers’ maiden names has five versions of Emma’s surname: McDonall (3 times), Macdowall, McDougal, McDonald and McDool. A good few years ago now Emma’s daughter-in-law stated that Emma’s surname was MacDowall but she was relying on birth certificate information; she added that Thomas had worked as a labourer at Vickers, Elswick. I have searched every marriage index I can find using all five variants of Emma’s surname coupled with Brida/Bryda/Brider/Bryder, but to no avail.
The only clues I have is that Thomas and Emma’s grandson has told me that, as a child, he was given to understand that his grandfather came from Ireland and was a Roman Catholic. Coming from Ireland doesn’t necessarily mean that someone was born there so possibly Thomas had gone there to find work and had met and married Emma, which might well explain the R.C. idea. For some reason Annie’s baptism was delayed until 1886 when it took place in the Anglican church in Wetherby. On the 1891 census Emma’s birthplace is recorded as London but there’s no sign of her birth circa 1858, being registered there under any of the surnames so I’m wondering if it should read Londonderry, the more so as Thomas’ Lambeth birthplace is wrongly transcribed as Lincoln.
Someone read the foregoing article and decided to try to help and came up with the idea that, as the Emma who married Thomas lee was the only one she could trace it must be the same person, her theory being that Emma had left Thomas Lee and was co-habiting with my Thomas Brider. She was also convinced that my Thomas's surname was Brader rather than Brider!
My thinking is that if I can prove that Emma Lee was still with her family in 1882 , when Rebecca Annie Brider was born, then she can't possibly have been Rebecca's mother.
I came across your look-up request when I was searching for something else and thought it was too good a chance to miss! I think it highly likely that it's the same family in 1891 as the names tally and the ages are more or less correct. Chapman Street is only a short walk away from Oswald Street where they were in 1881, with Emma's father living next door, not all that far from Silk Mill Row (gone now!) where they were at the time of their marriage.
My guess is that the answer is in Ireland where Emma McDowalls were two a penny but so far I've had no luck with those records, many of which are missing.
Thanks for your interest!
