Henry Elliott SMITH x 2, Father and Son

[canberraterry]

Hello Lilian,

Thank you for taking the time to respond with this. However this is not "our" Isabella and the reason that my great grandmother's maiden surname is recorded on my grand father's birth certificate as Brabason must remain a mystery.

[LilianConstance]

Hi again

There are a couple of Australian connections, both tenuous, but interesting and my gut feeling is that there is a distant connection between the families.

Harry Lambert Brabazon went to Sydney in 1839 and subsequently published a directory of the town. He got involved  with some property development deals which led him into declared bankruptcy and returned to Ireland in or around 1842. I imagine that he must have had some connections there which motivated him to undertake that enterprise.

The name Lambert features as a surname through marriage into the Brabazon family.

If you can tell me any more about your Isabella, I'll be happy to search through the information I have accumulated.

Kind regards

Lilian

PS I missed the most important point - the Brabazons married cousins on at least two occasions. They were also known to change their surnames to Brabazon, documented on at least one occasion by royal permission.

[canberraterry]

Hi Lilian,

My father's family were Dubliners, and my grandfather only came to Australia in or about 1919. His birth certificate records his mother's name as Isabella Anne Brabason. However, his older siblings' birth certificates record their mother's maiden surname as Isabella Anne Browne. His father, Henry Elliott Smith, was married to Isabella Anne Browne, not Brabason. She was one of at least two daughters of Stephen and Jane Browne (nee Bailey). Her sister was Martha.  I don't know if it is relevant but there is a lot of Huguenot blood in the Smith and Elliott families, with their forebears moving to Ireland in the wake of the St Bartholomew's Day massacres.

I have spent some years trying to get to the bottom of this, and can not find any rational explanation, hence my belief that it will probably remain a mystery.

Thank you for your interest: knowing little of how these things worked in Ireland in the 19th century makes it a bit hard to find answers, especially from such a distance.