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« on: Tuesday 29 May 18 03:19 BST (UK) »
Hi, All of you - this is my first post with RootsChat - and it is amazing to read about my ancestors being talked about. The person who started this post is my relative - but one generation on - When you read this R - I'm sending you my love and will email you. David Bryce, architect had an affair, we think, with his cousin, Jane or Janet Tod, the daughter of a Henry Tod, (who I think was a merchant, and the brother of David's mother Agnes Tod), that is, Jane Tod was David's cousin. Why they didn't marry is a mystery. Jane Tod had David Bryce Tod, their son, when she was about 39. She was from a well-to-do family, so we don't know why she never married beforehand, and more importantly, why she didn't marry the father of her son, David Bryce, who was a responsible man and who had supported his brothers' children.
The family story is that the Scottish law that accepted co-habitation as marriage was superseded in Scotland by the English law that stated there had to be a registration ceremony, or something! apparently Jane Tod said that by registering her cohabitation marriage she would have been saying that she was not married legally beforehand, so they didn't 'register' as the new law demanded.
A Jean Bryce with Jane Tods date of birth lived with David Bryce in his old age - we believe that this is Jane Tod, since there is no other 'Jean Bryce' to be found, and David Bryce, who must have filled in the censuses, often used pet names rather than the full names of family members.
There is a little square marker for David and Annie Bryce Tod in Aberlady churchyard - R - I will try to get someone to photo this for you. My brother David Kenneth Bryce Stafford, a descendant, is buried there, as are one of David Bryce Tod's daughters Jean Bryce Tod, and her daughter Davina (named for David Bryce the architect).
But David Stafford was told that there was no record of the bodies of David and Annie actually being interred. Thank you so much for all the amazing new information that I have found on this site about this family. The thing is now, I think, to look for the burial of James Tod, and that may well lead to where his parents are buried.
Please keep in touch, everyone, and thank you all for your information.
I live in the Wirral, but there are relatives still in Edinburgh