THE BREBNER/BREMNER GENEALOGY NEWSLETTER Volume 2, Issue 1 February 2006 Welcome! What's New ... Thanks to all of you who responded favourably to the first 1975-2003 English BMD records updated issue of the newsletter published last October. Some of you The 1837online.com site recently pointed out alignment problems while printing the web offered an unlimited search of its version, which have been overcome in this issue.Type size BMD records for one year for £50 has also been increased to aid legibility. GBP. That has allowed the updating of English BMD records in the databases Many of you sent detailed multi-page genealogies; other sent to 2003, as well as add quite a number copies of photographs (Thanks to Allister Brebner and Cyril of additional spouses' names to the Pawley) which I have incorporated into the new individual compiled genealogies. These records portrait database. will continue to be updated throughout William Wilson the year. The winter months here in Canada give me a chance to work Bremner on the housekeeping related to maintaining the web-site, 1853-1897 View genealogy... including updating genealogies, correcting data and updating mailing lists. Not on the list? Please add my name to the Searchable Portrait Database mailing list Over the years I have been accumulating copies of old Check to see if you are listed (or to add your name) to the photographs both of my own Brebner Brebner/Bremner Researchers Page... family as well as those of others. The portrait database is now available. You can very quickly search for In this Issue... individuals by first name, see all images of specific individual, or look at all images from that genealogy. I'd ● Biography: Ann Melani Bremner welcome any additional images of ● Brebner/Bremner related reading your early ancestors, as the database is ● Editorial Comment...the "unknown unknowns" a little heavy with photographs of my ● Feature...The Aberdeen Brebner Families own family! I'm most interested in ● Feature...Research in Aberdeen William Brymner, Artist photographs (or paintings) prior to ● Suggested websites 1855-1925 1930, but if you have more recent View genealogy... ● What's New on the website (this page) images that you'd like me to include, please feel free to send them along. Here are some hints and guidelines for sending images... Featured Living Biographies In this issue, Id like to premier a new feature...short biographies of living Brebner/Bremner individuals. While Compiled Genealogies Update fame is one criterion, those individuals The 400+ compiled genealogies are who are are high-wire artists, alligator usually updated when new or wranglers, musicians or death-row corrected information is uncovered. inmates will probably be featured first. However, during the past three Or maybe lawyers...this month months, all the older genealogies that showcases Ann Melani Bremner , a dated from 2003-2004 have been high profile US west coast media updated. While in many cases there attorney. Descended from the are few changes, you may find Botriphnie family of John Bremner additional information within these and Jane Watt, her ancestors revised compilations for collateral David Francis Bremner immigrated to the United States about lines. 1839-1922 View genealogy... 1840. See Page 4... Next page... Brebner/Bremner Genealogies Newsletter Page 1 Page 2 Suggested Websites... Brebner/Bremner Related Reading Once again I'd like to recommend a Google feature...this For those with an interest in Canadian time it's the Image Search. I was amazed to find some of my history, The Other Side of Rebellion by own photographs through this search, and I think that you Margaret Stobie [ISBN 0-920897-08-8] may be surprised at what you find when you enter your own is a fascinating account of Charles name there. I plan to incorporate some of those images into Bremner and his unfortunate run-in my new photo and portrait database over the next few with General Frederick Middleton months. during the North-West rebellion of 1885. Bremner was a Scottish-Indian descendant of Alexander Bremner The 1851 English census has now been posted on the from Orkney, who had come to the ancestry.com site, and the transcription of the Brebner/ Red River area to serve with the Bremner entries to my own census databases is nearly Hudson's Bay Company. Charles had complete. While the index often requires some creative moved to the Battleford area of thinking...my favourite mis-transcription of Brebner is Sakatchewan in 1881, and it was there Bulnes... the legibility of the scanned images is excellent. that he became involved in a series of events that led to his being imprisoned Also new on ancestry.com is their Canadian records in 1885, with the subsequent collection, which is said to include the complete 1911 confiscation of his furs by Middleton, Canadian Census transcription, as well as Ontario BMD who became the subject of a records. This requires an upgrade to their World Deluxe government enquiry. Membership level, available either monthly or annually. I haven't tried this out yet, and I welcome any comments about This is a captivating journal of the this new service. Feedback will be featured in the next issue events of the time. You may have some of the newsletter. difficulty finding it in print as a new volume, but it can be found fairly For those researching Canadian ancestors, the free version of easily through on-line used book- the 1911 Census Transcription at automatedgenealogy.com is sellers. progressing well. Many of the smaller communities have been fully transcribed, the total transcription is about 45% at Right: General Frederick Middleton time of writing. Unfortunately, because of deterioration of (1825-1898) the original images, many pages suffer from problems of legibility. Don't overlook the 1906 census of the western provinces (Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan) on the same Did you know... site...the transcription is about 75% complete. The late Billy Bremner (1942-1997), master footballer was connected with Still on the subject of census information, the 1861 Scottish the family of James Lobban Bremner census is now available at scotlandspeople.gov.uk. Again the from Ythan Wells. James, one of at quality of both indexing and image quality is excellent here, least seven children to William and I'm making progess on adding the Brebner/Bremner Bremner and Jessie Greig from information to my own census databases. Drumblade, married Bridget Newlands in 1937 in Stirling, and adopted young William John (b 09 DEC 1942). Billy To keep abreast of what's happening across the board in married Helen McKay Vick in 1962; genealogy, I recommend Eastman's Genealogy Newsletter. the couple had three children, Billy Jr., Dick has a very informative newsletter on all aspects of Donna and Amanda. genealogy research in addition to useful articles on computer- related subjects. Billy Bremner View genealogy... For those researching Australian ancestors, the Brisbane Now available... Cemetery Database allows free searching of a number of cemeteries in that area. A big plus to this site is that other A quick search of Brebner/Bremner marriage databases by family members buried in the graves are also noted. Brebner/ Bremner entries will be added to my deaths database during spouse's name. This new search is a great way to check for March. compiled family genealogies...all you need is a spouse's surname and an approximate marriage date. And on the other side of the world, descriptions of Illinois Civil War soldiers are now available from this state government site. These include place of birth, and physical traits, among other military details. Previous page... Next page... Brebner/Bremner Genealogies Newsletter Page 2 Page 3 Editorial... the "unknown unknowns" These and other event markers from city directories to wills, "Reports that say that something hasn't court records, immigration records, ships lists, monumental happened are always interesting to me, inscriptions and newspaper accounts allow the researcher to because as we know, there are known build up a picture of the individual. They define the knowns; there are things we know we framework for a family history, and once a researcher has know. We also know there are known established those defining time points, it becomes much easier unknowns; that is to say we know there to start understanding the lives that ancestors lived, as well as are some things we do not know. But verifying that we indeed have the correct ancestors and there are also unknown unknowns -- the family. ones we don't know we don't know." It's all too easy to assign "probable" births to parents based on Donald Rumsfeld the incidence of names in a given community, but the reality of the situation is that certainly in rural areas, many births weren't recorded, many children were illegitimate, many You might wonder why I would start my editorial in this issue wives died in childbirth and a large number of both men and with a quote from US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, women married more than once or twice. Inevitably a man and I'm sure many of you chuckled when you first heard that will marry a second wife of the same first name, or a sister of convoluted statement. his first wife, or worse! I have been guilty of making what I thought at the time were very reliable assumptions, and been However, joking aside, it does illustrate many of the proven wrong! I now take a much more cautious approach to challenges faced by genealogists today. Most of us, for those pre-1855 Scottish events, and I am accordingly far more example, know who our parents and grandparents are… and suspicious of those genealogists that can trace ancestors back we can work back in a logical progression to our earlier into the medieval period.