We've all made mistakes in our family tree. Usually as beginners, but even experienced researchers can slip up - and fixing those mistakes can be painful. We get attached to those who we believe to be our ancestors, so finding out that they're not related at all and having to remove them from our tree can hurt.
In my case, it was the parents of my 5x great-grandmother, Mary Barrass. Mary existed at an awkward point in time. I knew that she married her husband Robert Gray in Gateshead, County Durham on April 28, 1823 and that their daughter, my 4x great-grandmother Dorothy Gray had been born in Newcastle in 1834. However, the family had moved to Glasgow, Scotland by 1851, and this was just before the statutory registration system in Scotland had begun. Her husband Robert was a widow by 1861 according to the census and I could not find a death record for her after 1855 which meant she must have died between 1851 and 1854. This was frustrating, because if she had died after 1855, then the death record would have given the names of her parents.
But I (foolishly) persevered by making a silly assumption, that the place of her marriage, Gateshead, was the same place she was born. I managed to ignore the fact that her birth county in the 1841 census was said to be Northumberland and not Durham. I also overlooked that her first child, an illegitimate son named Edward Dodd Barrass, was christened in the parish of Earsdon in Northumberland in 1816, which should have been a big clue.
The record I honed in on was the christening of Mary Ann Barrass in Gateshead in 1796. Her parents were George Barrass and Isabella Shipley who married in Gateshead in 1792.
I soon discovered that Mary Ann's father George Barrass had an interesting story. He was a linen draper and partner of the firm Messers. John Rodham & Co. in Gateshead, but then left to work on his own in 1786. In 1800 he was charged with forgery and he went on the run, and a reward of twenty guineas was offered for his capture. His body was eventually found, drowned in a brook between Whitburn and Sunderland, on 18 Oct 1800.
This was the kind of family story that we genealogists dream of. Particularly for ancestors born before the 19th century, who typically leave very little details of their life behind in their records. I traced George's family further back in Gateshead and into Whickham, which offered a tantalising possibility that he was connected to the famous Barrass brewery family that lived there.
But in 2022 a helpful member of this forum sent me a private message. She had managed to find the death of my 5x great-grandmother Mary Barrass in Glasgow cemetery records in 1854. Most importantly, she pointed out that Mary was far more likely to be the Mary Barrass born in Earsdon, Northumberland in 1794 - the same place her oldest son was born in 1816. This Mary's parents were named John Barrass and Jane Crammond, which matched the names of two of her children, John Barrass Gray and Jane Barrass Gray.
I was slightly embarrassed and disappointed that George Barrass and his amazing story was not part of my family history anymore. My real 6x great-grandfather was actually John Barrass, a pitman who died young in 1796 and didn't leave any more details about his life behind. I became aware of how common and widespread the Barrass name was in the north east of England and so have had difficulty tracing the family back very far with any certainty.
Having said that, there is a different satisfaction in knowing that you have a new family history that is better supported by the facts, and not just an assumption that has lead you astray. It's given me a new approach for how I analyse the evidence and I've learned a valuable lesson.
This turned out to be longer that I originally planned. I hope you found it interesting and that you will share your stories here!
