Sunter and Penman link

[Andrew Sunter]

One of my cousins has asked if I know of a link between our Grandparents (Alexander Sunter and his sister Margaret Sunter - later Sinclair) and the name John Penman. My cousin thinks that Penman and our grandparents were cousins. My grandfather was born in 1911 and Margaret a few years later.

Any help would be hugely appreciated

[Milliepede]

You would need to start with your Sunter grandparents parents so do you know who they were?

One of their sisters might have married a John Penman. 

[Andrew Sunter]

I've got Alexander Watson Sunter born in May 1876 in Dundee. His father Robert Sunter born about 1840 in Kirkcaldy.

[David Nicoll]

Hi,
 As Millipede suggests, start with him, look on Scotlands People.
 His birth certificate will give his mothers maiden name and you can look for the family in the subsequent census.
 It looks like Robert may have been born nearer 1834 if the 1891 census is to be believed.

[Andrew Sunter]

Thank you so much for your advice

[Forfarian]

There are no Sunter-Penman marriages that far back, no deaths of anyone Sunter with other surname Penman, and no deaths of a Sunter with mother's surname Penman or a Penman with mother's surname Sunter.

So any connection is likely to be in a maternal line.

Do you know anything else at all about John Penman? Where did he live? Was he a similar age to Alexander Sunter or was he significantly older or younger?

[Andrew Sunter]

I don't know anything about him at all. Just a name that has been thrown at me 

[Forfarian]

Sunter timelines

1864: Robert Sunter marries Janet PEDDIE, Dundee
1874: Robina Douglas Sunter, mmn Peddie, born, Dundee
1878: Robina Douglas Sunter, mmn Peddie, dies, Dundee
1876: Alexander Watson Sunter, mmn Peddie, born, Dundee
1886: Robert Peddie (16), mmn Peddie, dies, Dundee
1896: Janet Peddie or Sunter (55), mmn HARRIS, dies, Dundee
1898: Alexander Sunter marries Margaret MORRIS, Dundee
1899: Robert Sunter (60), mmn CHRISTIE, dies, Dundee
1900: Annie Tarbert Sunter, mmn Morris, born, Dundee
1902: Janet Peddie Sunter , mmn Morris, born, Dundee
1904: Margaret Morris Sunter , mmn Morris born, Dundee
1907: Agnes Larg Muir Sunter, mmn Morris, born, Dundee
1911: Agnes Laig Murr*, mmn Morris, dies, Dundee
1911 Alexander Thomson Sunter, mmn Morris, born, Aberdour
1913: Robert Sunter, mmn Morris, born, Dalgetty
1933: Alexander Thomson Sunter marries Christina Bruce LUNN, Dundee
1933: Margaret Sunter marries James Kirk SINCLAIR, Dundee
1934: Janet Peddie Sunter marries William TOSH, Dundee
1949: Alexander Sunter (73) dies, Dundee
1999: Alexander Thomson Sunter, mmn Morris, dies, Dundee

1841 Census: Abbotshall
Elizabeth Sunter, 35
Janet Sunter, 10
William Sunter, 5
Elizabeth Sunter, 3
Robert Sunter, 1

1851 Census: Abbotshall
Elizabeth Sunter, 47
Elizabeth Sunter, 14
Robert Sunter, 11

1881 Census:  Dundee
Robert Sunter, 41
Janet Sunter, 45
Robert Sunter, 11
Alexander Sunter, 5

1911 Census index, Dundee:
Alexander Watson Sunter, 35
Margaret Morris Sunter, 34
Annie Tarbert Sunter, 11
Janet Peddie Sunter, 8
Maggie Morris Sunter, 6
Agnes Laig Murr* Sunter, 4
Alexr Thomas Sunter, 0

You could try looking for marriages of Penmans to any of those wives' surnames and see where it takes you.

[Andrew Sunter]

That's definitely us. Some of the info is wrong though. My grandfather was Alexander Thomas Sunter rather than Thomson and he died in Dunfermline not Dundee.