THE BROWN FAMILY : An Introduction.

18th Century Cabinet Maker

I've still been unable to do the research I want on Esther Bayliss Slater so I'm deferring it until a later date. Rather than jump forward to Stanley Bayliss I've decided to take a break from the stories of my aunts and uncles for a short time and instead take a look at one of the families who are related to the Bayliss line.  I have chosen the Brown family for a couple reasons. Before explaining those reasons I had better explain who the Brown family are.  Family members of my generation will remember Phyllis   ("Aunty Phil") who was married to Arthur Bayliss (whose story I told most recently). Phyllis was born Phyllis May Brown, so it is her family I intend to write about.  The main impetus to look into the Brown family story came from cousin Alvin.  Alvin had done a little research and had what he thought was his grandmother's birth certificate. It turned out that it was the wrong certificate - this is a common mistake which anybody doing genealogical research makes on occasions and I am as guilty as anybody of following wrong paths.  But it was the discovery that it was the wrong certificate that led Alvin and I to do a brainstorming session on the Browns.  What an interesting family they turned out to be!  Further, they seemed fairly easy to trace which is, of course, always a great encouragement to go that bit deeper.An added bonus was that I made contact with a lady named Mandy Field and, to be honest, the fact that I am able to even contemplate writing about the early part of the Brown history owes a lot to Mandy's own research.  The whole aim of The Bayliss Line is to tell the story of our family and relatives in an entertaining way. It is not a definitive scholarly document (I'm very flattered if you think otherwise) as "definitive" is a word that can very rarely, if ever, be applied to family trees or any kind of genealogical research; every mystery reveals another one and facts have to be checked. Thankfully I have been able to solve many of the "mysteries" in out family history, some of which have haunted me for years, but there are just as many unsolved.  I have no personal knowledge of the Brown family so I have had to rely very much on things that Alvin remembered, the research of others and the interpretation of public documents.  The final "push" to do the article came from cousin Alva who, with her husband Len, is an enthusiastic follower of this blog.  The first part of the article with appear Sunday or Monday and will begin with Matthew Hill Brown, a cabinet-maker, born in Barnard's Castle, Co. Durham in 1786.