Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to look. You have found everything I have already found. I have a pretty good database of HARRAGINs in Trinidad. And, I think that the A.E. Harragin who is a guest at my great uncle's wedding in 1906 is actually Alfred Ernest. A lot of the family you have found are there as well. But.....WHO IS HIS FATHER? And why can I not find any reference to him in newspapers (plenty of references to Alfred's cricket career) or military records? Maybe I have not seen his military file?
The marriage of HARRAGIN/DICK cannot be found in Scotland because although it was reported in the Dundee paper in 1879, it actually took place in Trinidad. I don't think this couple are his parents because they were married two years AFTER he was born (1877). They did go on to have 9 children, one of whom is my great aunt whose marriage I mentioned above.
I am thinking that Alfred's father may be a sibling to George Francis Robert "Harris" HARRAGIN (who married Emily Dick and who appears in some records simply as "Harris" and is my direct ancestor). He was the son of John Stephen HARRAGIN and Anna Matilda GREY. The only additional children I have found for the HARRAGIN/GREY marriage are John Arthur HARRAGIN (1842-1902) and Thornton Frederick Walter HARRAGIN (1856-?) Thornton is a medical student living with his brother, John and family, in London in the 1881 census.
And that census is what's holding me up! It would be easy enough to think Alfred is a son of John Arthur because the marriage date is right and that couple went on to have children in 1871, 1783, 1874, 1876...and then a gap until 1885. But if so, where was Alfred in the 1881 census? He would have been 3 years old, so why was he not with the rest of the family?
I only show 3 sons in the HARRISON/GREY family as a result of that marriage and there are significant gaps in those births (John Arthur 1842, George Francis Robert Harris 1854, and Thornton Frederick Walter 1856). I have NOT found a marriage for that couple but I have found Anna Matilda Grey's birth recorded in Londonderry (northern Ireland). I suspect that the marriage took place there, but John Arthur is born in Trinidad in 1842 so maybe not. And his Anna Grey's father, Capt William O'Neill Grey (HM 30th regiment) died in Trinidad in 1841 (result of falling from a horse due to old war wound); as her mother, Barbara Eliza (nee Blake) in 1860. So it seems this couple came to Trinidad after Anna Matilda's birth in Ireland. BTW, her mother is the granddaughter of Sir Walter Blake, Bart, Meolough Castle, Galway for what that's worth.
I know this is a pretty lengthy post to bring you up to speed with what I have previously found, but doing it has helped me organize my thoughts on this family. I think I need to try to find additional sons of John Stephen HARRAGIN (1800-1859) and Anna Matilda GREY (1825 - ?) to solve this mystery of the father of Alfred. I'm guessing they were born between 1843 and 1854. Mother Anna must have been pretty young when she and John Stephen married (17 or so?) if her first child was born in 1842.
So, the hunt goes on! Thanks for your patience and help.
