Since writing the above this morning I have reviewed all of my family material again and am now even more confused. The following is an extract of a brief family history written by my grandmother, Ada (nee Cunningham), daughter of Jane "Jeannie" McMillen Brown (sometimes with an e and sometimes without) shortly before her death. I apologise for its length but I hope that it might jog some memories if we are indeed related:
"2. The Brownes
My maternal grandmother was a dainty, petite, and attractive woman; Margaret Rutherford Browne, one of three sisters, descendents of Dr Samuel Rutherford, the Presbyterian Divine. They were wards of the Horatio Bonars in Glasgow, Scotland.
Grandma lived with her eldest daughter, Agnes Robertson (nee Browne) in Derry. Other children :
a. Auntie Mag Lowry (nee Browne) was a teacher and a great favourite in our home, when on holidays before her marriage.
b. Aunt Ada married and went to America. – I remember seeing her only once afterwards, when she came on a visit to Grandma in Londonderry.
c. There were two sons, John Brown and David (?) whom I dimly remember as coming to say goodbye to my parents before sailing for South Africa.
Mother used to tell us of her visits to her aunts in Glasgow, and of spending days and evenings in the home of one of the poet preachers - Dr Horatio Bonar.
I was told that Grandfather Browne was responsible for most of the decorative iron-work – railings etc – in Derry city. I remember him as a big, affectionate man who lavished sweets and pennies on us children, We spent those coppers in a little, dark shop two steps down from the road, where a little old woman dispensed thick sticks of caraway rock and peppermint out of jars with tight-fitting lids. Whenever I spent a few days at Grandma Browne’s home, I wondered at, and was rather scared by the rows of big, equal-sized gilt-framed portraits adorning the dining room walls, but wakened with delight to the sound of the sirens, steam whistles “blowing” and movements of shipping on the River Foyle, and at the wharves.
On Boxing Day we always had the Robertson family from Derry come for the day. Father and Uncle A went off shooting with a party of local men, coming home just in time for dinner, with rabbits, hares, and birds of various kinds, that lasted both families for a week afterwards. On 30th October they used to come to celebrate All Souls’ Day, or All Hallows’ Eve, with us. We used to look out excitedly to see them coming up the street from the railway station with Father, who had gone to meet them. There was usually a whitish mist rising from the ground. We children did not go to meet them, but they appeared through the gathering darkness, and celebrations began almost before they were indoors. Uncle and Auntie, Daisy, Jean, Alex, George, and Jim.
Apples were hanging on strings suspended near the ceiling, tubs of water on the floor contained more apples, with a supply of forks, dropped from the mouth to spear them with. White sheets as wraps for “ghosties” to dress in, to hunt for cabbage stalks and so discover the names of our future life partners. Each person carried a cabbage stalk from the garden, then, clutching it firmly, listened outside someone’s window – any name overheard in the indoor conversation was supposed to be the name of the clutcher’s wife or husband-to-be! When the water and apples and tubs etc had been cleared away, nuts were produced. They were placed in pairs on the bars of the hot grate, where they burned side by side, watched excitedly, while they flamed calmly together or spluttered and spat at each other, thus prophesying what each couple’s future would be like!
Our cousins would stay all night, returning next day to Derry by an early train. Daisy and Jean, Edith and I shared one bed, pushed up close against the wall, and sleeping cross-wise instead of length-wise."
Since the John Browne the Engineer and Iron Founder who died on 29 June 1897 was married to a Sarah, I am wondering if my gm Ada Cunningham's recollection of Margaret Rutherford Andrews as her grandmother on the Browne side might be not quite right or her recollection of the iron works might be not quite right.
I have included the extract in the hope that it might jog the memory of someone who knows the family, as I would love to be able to confirm my ancestry on this line, and I haven't had much success so far with my limited research skills. In any event, the descriptions of a life style long gone might be of interest to others.
Terry
