Confusing great-grandparents

Northern Ireland and Eire

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AnneM
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Location: Aberdeenshire

Confusing great-grandparents

Post by AnneM » Mon Apr 06, 2015 9:50 pm

I have recently returned to reviewing my own family tree having spent quite some time on other people's and am revisiting a problem I have looked at and asked about before

I knew my mother's grandmother, Jeanie, always known to me as Granny Kerr. She helped care for my mother and my aunt after their own mother's early death. The information I have from my mother is that my great grandmother was brought up in Belfast and that my grandmother Annie Allan Kerr, born Edinburgh 1902, was named after my Granny Kerr's mother Annie Allan and my mother was given the forenames Jean Young after G Kerr. Mum knows quite a lot about G Kerr's siblings and this is information which I have verified from census and statutory records. So far so good. I have seen her death certificate which names her as Jane McFarlane Young widow of John Kerr. Mum also said that her grandmother's birthday was 29th February so that she only had a birthday once every 4 years.

The birth certificate of Jane McFarlane Young on 29 February 1876 at 6 Ann Street, Greenock can be found on SP, giving her parents as John Young and Annie Allan and their marriage (verified) in Belfast in 1873.

Complications begin to set in when she married my great grandfather John Kerr (born 1875, Abbey St Bathans) as she herself would almost certainly agree!

The problem I have is that, on every certificate on which he gives her name, he names her as Christina McFarlane Young and gives the date of their marriage as 25th December 1896 in Belfast.This is the case on the birth certificates of all of their children and the death certificate of their baby, Robert Kerr, who died aged 2 months in February 1905. On the census in 1911 she is also given as Christina. They are nowhere to be found on the 1901 census in Ireland, Scotland or England. I have searched everywhere!! By this stage my Aunt (Isa)Bella who lived to the grand old age of 90+ had been born in 1900 in Edinburgh so they should have been easy to track down. Jeanie's parents are back in Scotland at that stage.

Now as it happens there was a Christina Kerr born 6th February 1876 in Greenock but she is the daughter of Robert Young the brother of John Young, Jane/Jeanie's father and she has no middle name.

On all certificates e.g. the death certificates of her son John in 1931 (John Young Kerr born 1911 in Dunoon) and of John senior in 1916 she signs herself Jeanie Kerr, the name by which she was always known.

In light of all of this it will come as no surprise to know that equally I can find no trace of their marriage (whether under the name Jane or Christina) on the GRONI site. The habit of both Young brothers of hopping back and forward between Scotland and Northern Ireland does not help.

I am confused between what I think I know and what the certs say. The simplest option is simply that my great grandfather, who had so many jobs in so many places that he could not have been of the most reliable, just got equally confused and thought that Jeanie was short for Christina. In addition they may just never have officially tied the knot. Do these conclusions seem likely or am I just kidding myself.

Anne

PS In 1901 Cousin Christina is in Belfast with her father Robert Young and mother Catherine McCall so she is accounted for.
Anne
Researching M(a)cKenzie, McCammond, McLachlan, Kerr, Assur, Renton, Redpath, Ferguson, Shedden, Also Oswald, Le/assels/Lascelles, Bonning just for starters

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