thanks for the info Michael, I have tried to send you an email direct but it was returned. Would you like to try to contact me via my profile and then we can write direct to each other?

Yes, I think you are right about the date discrepancy – I think my Jean/Jane Brand (1797-1876), who married Thomas Paterson (B1801?) could well have been the daughter of Robert Brand Jnr.

Anyway, here are the first couple of Brand generations that I have, without taking this into account:

Robert Brand (1725-1799) m Elizabeth Gilespie (1731-1806) (sister of Mary who married into the Carlyle family)

children

• Janet
• Jean(1797-1876) m Thomas Paterson* (?1801 day labourer and stone dyker?)
• Annie m William Murray
• James (? went to Us in 1819, returned and left again with wife and children in 1827. Settled in N Illinois via NY and Canada in 1840)
• William (1789) m Mary Johnson
• Elizabeth
• Robert


*this is the main link with my family being my GGG grandparents. They had nine children:

• Mary (1820-1893) m John Tennant (b1816) (my maternal GG grandparents)
• Sarah (1825)
• Ann m James Emerson (my paternal GG grandparents)
• William (1829)
• Adam (1832)
• James (died in infancy)
• Elizabeth (died in infancy)
• Thomas (1837)
• James Harvey (1840)


Most of my tree is based on a compilation by my mother. I understand that the info was passed down from generation to generation and that somewhere there is meant to be a family bible and copies of some wills. My mother is still alive but although I sometimes ask her about details she gets a bit confused – she is now 92! My mother’s parents lived in Ecclefechan and my mother lived there with them for several years. I have buffed out the tree with some details I have got from census records that are now available and from, cemetery records.

My sisters and I went round three cemeteries in Ecclefechan last autumn and took down lots of records and photos – but I have yet to decipher most of them. I tend to have concentrated goes at the tree and then lapse through exhaustion and confusion!

I have a lot of info about the Carlyle side – do you have any about Mary Gilespie’s family (Mary Gilespie (1729-1792) m Thomas Carlyle (1722-1806) (grandparents to THE Thomas Carlyle). Mary was sister to Elizabeth (1731-1806) who married Robert Brand (probably Junior)

with best wishes - Jose