Roy Brown: Fox Street and the church incident

In the early 1990s, my dad (Roy Brown) lived in a house on Fox Street, Scunthorpe. At that time we would stay overnight sometimes at the weekend.

While a lot of the time seemed to be occupying ourselves while dad watched telly, we did often walk to the newsagent, which must have been on Froddingham Road. He would buy my the 'Discovering Nature - on the trail with Billy Bumble' magazine, which seems to have been issued in 1991/1992 - which possibly provides dates for this period of time.

On one occasion we were walking back from the newsagent's and were walking past Centenary Methodist Church and an old lady fell down the steps while leaving the church and cut a large gash in her shin. I remember dad rushing inside to get a chair for her and making sure she was ok. I was proud of my dad that day and wish I had more memories like this.

He lived at Fox Street for a while, and had a dog there for a time, he moved around a lot and this is one of the only streets I remember him living. I remember me and my sister (Naomi Brown) playing in an alleyway there, I'm not sure if this was at the back of the houses or down the side of the house.

Here's the first tape of that magazine series:

Book Review: Research Your Surname by Dr. Graeme Davis

This book is short and focused ad because of this, it was the perfect first book to learn about surnames. Each chapter is sub-divided so that there is a paragraph or two on each single topic, for instance, surname drift or Norman England.

This is such an accessible book that has made me feel much more confident with my surname studies and given me clear directions on what I should be looking for and where my research should be headed. While I had already realised that I needed to go back as far as possible to get as close as possible to the origin of surnames in my family, I can also use distribution maps when I find that my family lived in certain areas. I also need to spend time looking for place names, occupations, or topographical features in those areas that may have originally provided the origin of individual surnames. The author teaches us to be sceptical of convenient surname definitions, for instance is it likely in a country where brown hair is very common that the surname Brown would be given due to hair colour?

I have some very common surnames, such as Brown, which this book helpfully describes and tells me that the research on this surname doesn't provide a clear definition. I also have surnames that aren't English and aren't common worldwide, never mind in Britain, so there is no definition I'm aware of, only the research I've been conducting - but this book is helpful for that too - as I've written about in the paragraph above.

There are some excellent chapters on surnames of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. A reasonable amount of history described means that the reader can get a real sense of the events of the period that surnames were formed - and why certain surnames occur in certain areas.

If you'd like to begin surname research, or just get a better grasp of what a surname is - then read this book. It's short, so won't take up too much time; but full of very useful information. An added bonus is how readable it is. Give it a go!

Surname: Brown

This surname post will be different to my post on the surname HAVENITH due to BROWN having a much shorter history within my family. The information within the post will be fairly general (due to lack of professional research into the surname) and will focus more on the personal history of the surname in my family.

Origin
The origin of the surname BROWN and its variants is not known. This is due to this being a nickname surname.

Within my family, my grandfather Ernest BROWN is said to have chosen the name. He was part of a traveller family and the story goes that he changed his surname to avoid conscription into the army. Unfortunately, he died when my father and his siblings were children, therefore very little is known. We don't know why is chose BROWN as his replacement surname, but we do know that he settled down for a number of years with my grandmother and had 6 children. His occupation changed over the years, but he was best known as a rag and bone man. His original name was Ernest HARWOOD.

Distribution
This is a wildly common surname and is found throughout Britain and is noted as being the sixth most common surname at the time Graeme Davis published Research your Surname in 2010.

Meaning
This surname is considered to be a nickname surname referring to things such as hair colour or hair colour, or sometimes even the colour of someone's clothes. These ideas - especially relating to hair colour - seem unrealistic, however without further investigation by experts, we are likely to remain with this answer.

Another idea is that it could possibly be a patronymic of the first name 'Brun' or relating to a place name that has brown in the name.

There may well be possible origins for this surname. The further back you can trace this surname in your own family history; the closer you'll be to an answer (hopefully).

Variation
There is no variation of this surname within my family as I was part of the third generation to have the surname.

Conclusion
My interest in the surname BROWN, it's fair to say, is quite superficial. This is due to the surname having such a short history within my family. At the moment, I know as much as I can know about why this surname is in my family. I think that there may still be some people that knew my grandfather, but they are travellers and unfortunately I'm unlikely to ever meet then and find out more about my grandfather's history. 

Sources
Graeme Davis, 2010. Research Your Surname and Your Family Tree: Find Out What Your Surname Means and Trace Your Ancestors Who Share It Too. Edition. How to Books. 

An Unfortunate Tradition

Last year I got married. The record of my marriage has my father's name and describes him as deceased. There is a line through the Rank or profession of father cell.

I didn't think much of it until my wife purchased my parents marriage record for Valentine's Day this year. I immediately saw that the same situation. I knew that my grandad had died from lung cancer (as my dad did) when my dad was a young boy. But, it still came as a shock.

Web Resources: FreeBMD

FreeBMD is a website populated with Birth, Marriage, and Death records transcribed by volunteers FreeUKGenealogy project, which includes FreeCEN and FreeReg. As FreeBMD is the one that I frequently use, I'm going to concentrate on this part of the project.
and available for free to the public. It's part of the

This website is fantastic in its own right, but especially so if you don't have access to other sites such as Ancestry. BMD records between 1837-1983 are available, however the transcription is ongoing and not every record is available as yet. However, transcriptions are added regularly with November 2014 seeing 806,328 new records added increasing the amount of records to 308,090,800.

Family Tabletop Games

I've always enjoyed tabletop games, mainly playing different board games. For the past few years, the tile-placement game, Carcassonne, has been our game of choice due to the mechanic of picking tiles blind out of a bag, which provides a randomness that keeps the game interesting - and, of course, the many expansions that provides a wide range of extra tiles and features.

Carcasonne has been played by three generations of my family; myself, my mum and my niece. However, there is a game that has been played by at least five generations of my family over many decades. The game is called veertigen, veertigleggen or the name favoured by my family: Jokeren.

Roy Brown's Birth Certificate

As I mentioned in a previous post, my wife ordered my Dad's Birth Certificate for me this Christmas. This was very important to me because not only did he die over 12 years ago, but we had a complex and inconsistent relationship over the years. So, I'm always keen to learn more about him; even if it's just little pieces of data.

So, what new things did it tell me about my Dad and the wider family?

Firstly, it gave me an address that I hadn't known about previously. I find it so exciting to add new homes to the map and see how individuals and families move around.

Secondly, it told me that my Nana had kept her married name. She was married before meeting my Grandfather and I had wondered if she reverted back to her maiden name (which is what my mum has done); but now I know that she remained a Winterton. It also tells me that she's a Housekeeper. I need to do some research, but I think that it means she was a house wife. I'm assuming this because the trend seems to be that only records of "Housekeeper (Non Domestic)" seem to related to working outside of the home - for example in a hotel or boarding school.

Thirdly, it tells me that my Grandfather was a Bricklayers Labourer. This is exciting as I didn't have a clue what sort of work he did!

Fourthly, but probably least importantly, I know that for whatever reason, 12 days passed before they managed to register my Dad's birth. This isn't surprising as I imagine that they were both busy, Grandad with work and Nana looking after my Dad and her other children.


I was hoping for an example of their handwriting. Sadly, it appears that this was filled in by the registrar. There may be a reason for this, but as I'm still new to this, I'm not sure what it is! If you have any suggestions: answers on a postcard - or in the comments below!

Web Resources: General Register Office

This year, for Christmas, I asked my wife to order me my dad's birth certificate. I didn't know much about his birth, so I thought that this would be a nice way of getting to know a bit more about him and to have the certificate for family members to see.

I had looked on certificate swapping websites (links below) and found that there were no certificates for my dad on there, so I headed straight to the GRO website.

Dreaming of my father

It's always sad when a family member dies, but we're lucky to have memories of them, either our own memories or memories that others have passed on to us.

My dad died over 12 years ago now. We had a difficult relationship and went in and out of each other's lives. As a child I was quite angry at the choices he made and how they impacted us as a family. But over the years I've come to accept, as every child eventually does, that our parents aren't perfect. Now, I only have love for him and I'm thankful for the memories I have of him.