As detailed in yesterday’s entry, my great (x3) grandparents Thomas Sterling Hunter and Jean Henry Brown disappeared after the 1871 census. They reappeared in a place where I would never have dreamed of looking – the Midwestern United States.

Obituaries for Thomas Sterling Hunter and Jean Henry Brown

I found obituaries online for my great (x3) grandparents Thomas Sterling Hunter and Jean Henry Brown and was amazed to discover that they and their other children had emigrated to the USA in the early 1870s and that they had both died in Republican City in Nebraska in 1906.

Republican City is actually a small village in Harlan County, Nebraska, United States of America. It was founded in 1871 and was named for the Republican River. The population was 282 in 1880, rising to 580 by 1950 and was estimated to be 154 in 2019. There is a Hunter Cove with a campground just south of Republican City on the shores of Harlan County Lake which might have been named after the Hunters.

The transcript of the obituary for Jane Henry Brown stated that she had been born on 11th October 1817 at Anchter arder (sic) i.e. Auchterarder (in Perthshire) in Scotland, while the obituary for Thomas Sterling Hunter stated that he had been born at Coalsnaughton (in Tillicoultry parish, Clackmananshire) in Scotland on 10 December 1817.

The obituary for Jane Henry Brown revealed that there had been six children, two of whom were buried in Scotland. One of these was my great (x2) grandmother Mary Hunter, Mrs Drysdale, who died aged 54 on 22 January 1899 in Greenock. There must also have been a previously unknown child who had died before the births of the five surviving Hunter children had been registered in 1854.

The obituaries revealed that Thomas Sterling Hunter and Jane Henry Brown had emigrated to America with their son James and daughter Isabella in the early 1870s following their daughter Jean and son Thomas who had emigrated two years before. This meant that the only known member of the family who had remained in Scotland was my great (x2) grandmother, Mary Hunter.

While the obituaries state that Jean Henry Brown became a member of the Established church of Scotland “in early life” and that Thomas Sterling Hunter became a member “shortly after his marriage“, we know from the 1854 entries in the Old Parish Register of Births & Baptisms that the children of the marriage were “baptised before the Independent congregation of Tillicoultry by the Revd. Mr Browning.”

Statutory Death Register entry for Jean Henry Brown

Jane Henry Brown’s death was registered by her son James who declared that his mother was born on 11th October 1817 in Perthshire in Scotland, the daughter of Henry Brown and Jane Henry Brown, both natives of Scotland.

Who was Thomas Stirling Hunter?

Neither of the¨ births or baptisms for Thomas Sterling Hunter or Jean Henry Brown were found in the Old Parish Registers. However, both families appeared to have been members of dissenting churches and the dates and places were not inconsistent with the entries in the Scottish census records from 1841 to 1871.

However, thanks to DNA matches with descendants of Elizabeth Hunter, whose grandson was Sir Robert Falla the New Zealand museum administrator and ornithologist, Thomas Sterling Hunter’s parents were deduced to be Alexander Stirling Hunter and Jean Johnstone. The name “Stirling” was in honour of the Rev. Alexander Stirling, the new Minister of Tillicoultry, and it was traditional for the first child baptised by a new minister to be named after him.

Who was Jean Henry Brown?

When Jean Henry Brown’s son James recorded her death in Nebraska, he started that her parents were Henry Brown and Jane Henry Brown. There have been as yet no confirmed DNA matches to confirm this line, and no trace of a Henry Brown who married a Jane Henry (or Brown) has been found in the records. This is perhaps not surprising as it does seems unlikely that both “Henry” and “Brown” should be part of her father’s and also her mother’s names.

Interestingly, a Jean Henry was born at Newbigging in Auchterarder parish and baptised on 22 January 1792 and she is a candidate for Jean Henry Brown’s mother. This Jean Henry’s mother, Janet Steil (or Steel) was born at a place called Clarty Mire in Auchterarder parish, while a Jean Brown, sister to a DNA link, Mary Brown, was also born at Clarty Myre, in 1814. Could this Jean Brown be a cousin, or even Jean Henry Brown herself? Further DNA matches will be required to confirm this line.

As for the Browns, we have a DNA match whose ancestors include a Mary Brown who was born in Auchterarder in 10 November 1810, the daughter of William Brown and Isabelle McLaren, suggesting a possible link, however one that requires confirmation.

Jane Hunter and Peter Roland

Finally, my great (x3) grandparents Thomas Sterling Hunter and Jean Henry Brown were said to have followed two of their children to the USA. One of these was their daughter Jean (pictured above with her husband Peter Rolland) and other their son Thomas. Their other two surviving children James and Isabella also accompanied them to America, which left only my great (x2) grandmother Mary Hunter in Scotland.

It is interesting to imagine how different history might have been if Mary Hunter had accompanied the rest of her family to the USA as we would not have existed!