Thank you to Evelyn and Janita for helpful responses to my new quest for my 3 x G grandfather John Brown born North Shields 1794, who left for London and was there by 1815 when he married and until he died in 1866. I would love to hear from any other Newcastle/Tynemouth/North Shields Brown researchers. Nigel Brown -----Original Message----- From: northumbria-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:northumbria-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Ken & Evelyn MacCallum via Sent: 05 November 2014 21:44 To: northumbria@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [NMB] John BROWN, North Shields, 1794 Hello I'm not sure if this will be a red herring but in with a pile of predominantly unnamed photos of my Tynemouth, Hislop, Stupart and Thompson ancestors, there is a photo of a Miss P. Brown, an attractive, elegantly dressed young lady  and she's linking arms with a dapper young man, whose first name initial is W.  The photo appears, to my limited knowledge, to be around 1850 / 60. If this is of interest to anyone, please let me know and I'll email a copy. Yours aye Evelyn From: JANITA FREEMAN [mailto:janitafreeman@yahoo.co.uk] Sent: 05 November 2014 17:33 To: Nigel Brown; northumbria@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [NMB] John BROWN, North Shields, 1794 Hi Nigel, I'm also researching 'Browns' in North Shields. My Great Grandmother was Isabella Brown c 1851. As its such a 'popular' name I cannot go any further back or forward. Nightmare with that surname. To make matters worse she had 3 children out of wedlock and the father of her children was Joseph Matthewson. The children begain with Brown as their surname and later my Grandfather became known by the surname Matthewson. She also used the Matthewson name on 1881 census, calling herself a blacksmiths wife, when my grandfather was 5 days old. They don't seem to have married. Good luck with your research. Janita JANITA