Apologies for raising this once more, but having been prompted by Fiona, I'll give it another try - its my biggest and most frustrating brick wall.
William Kerr and Isabella Lockie (otherwise Lockhart) had several children, one of them Grizel Rae Kerr, born 1831 Durisdeer. However, I am more concerned with another daughter, Mary born 1828 Durisdeer. Between 1836 and 1839 the whole family moved to Sanquhar (daughter born there 1839).
Mary Kerr (my ggxgrandmother) married James Brown in Sanquhar in 1860 in Kirkconnel by Sanquhar. James Brown was a widower, with no children by his previous marriage to a much older woman, who had died the previous year aged 63(Mary Scott nee Goodwin).
However, the 1861 census lists two daughers:
James Brown Head Marr. 50 Labourer Morton, Dumfries
James Brown Son Unm 14 Kirkconnel, Dumfries
Jane Brown Dau Unm 6 Sanquahar, Dumfries (b.1855?)
Isabella Brown Dau Unm 3 New Cumnock, Ayrshire (b.1858?)
James Brown son appears to be the result of a liaison between James Snr and a stepdaughter (Rachel Scott) if a submitted entry on IGI is to be believed.
However, there are no birth records for Jane and Isabella, although Isabella certainly falls within the compulsory registration period. (Jane may have been born 1854).
Both girls believed their parents to be James Brown and Mary Kerr (as per marriage certificates) which means the couple must have been having an affair whilst James was still married, but there are no birth registrations for them under Kerr. (Spent a fortune on SP checking out every possibility).
One clue is that Isabella's death cert. gives her parents as "Mary Kerr afterwards married to James Brown" which seems to imply that James might not have been their father.
Jane in later life takes on the middle name Kerr and gives her maiden name as Kerr on the birth registration of her last child.
I have every piece of documentation on the family after the '61 census (even photographs) - I know how helpful people are, but it is only the births of the girls I need to know.
Possible connections are Aitkens (an Aitken grandchild on the '51 census - have checked out the family - can't establish a relationship, but no Janes or Isabella Aitkens, (or Scotts or Goodwins or Browns). Could be a Wilson, Howat or Cowan connection (too complicated to go into here - I have reams of stuff).
Anyway, what I am looking for is a Jane (b.1854/55 and an Isabella b. c. 1858 who have disappeared on the '61 census and re-appeared in the Brown household - what was their surname and who were their parents.
