It is likely that this family originated in Fife given the DNA results match to Family E. However, the first confirmed documentary evidence so far is the baptisms of John and Mary’s children on the Northumberland / Scotland border in the late 1700s. Further clues are available from a monumental inscription in Norham Churchyard, but unfortunately the stone is worn and the vital details about birth and death are damaged and clearly not transcribed correctly.
It is known that Elizabeth died in 1866 not 1846, when her age was given as 63 years[i]. John was in fact buried in Oxendean, Northumberland on 6 November 1819 aged 79, giving an approximate birth date of 1740[ii]. This indicates the level of the problem with reading this gravestone.
Monumental Inscription for John and Mary BRIMER in St Cuthbert’s Churchyard, Norham, Northumberland[iii]
John and Mary have 167 known descendants in 8 generations born with the Brymer or Brimer surname – 87 males, 78 females and 2 unknowns who died in childhood. The high ratio of males to females has ensured the families success and there are still 19 living males in the UK. In addition, 1 male moved to South Africa and 5 to New Zealand.
The surnames Brimer and Brymer were used interchangeably by this branch for many years, but can now be used to distinguish the line a person has descended from as shown in the figure above.
The families developed quite distinct professions depending on the part of the UK they settled in. The Durham branch were shipwrights, sawyers and ferry men – running a small ferry across the Tyne at Dunston for many years. The Lancashire branch were crucible makers, whilst the branch that ended up in Hampshire worked in the Newspaper industry.
Obituary of John Brymer, Newspaper Manager[iv]
This family is the most nomadic of the Brimer / Brymer families within the UK, moving from Northumberland to Durham, Lanarkshire, Lancashire and Hampshire and continues to be distributed all over the UK today.
While investigating this family the need for good photography by the genealogy sites became very apparent.
Indexing and transcribing is only as good as the photographs used by the genealogy sites as can be seen below. On Ancestry the page number is given as 11 ignoring the last two illegible digits.
An image from a death index on Ancestry.[v]
The digits can however, be identified on FindMyPast quite easily thanks to a better photograph.
An image from the same death index on FindMyPast.[vi]
The photographs are not consistently better on any one site compared to another and it often depends on how recently the records have been digitised. This is why it is not possible to rely exclusively on one of the paid genealogy sites.
[i] Death index (CR) England and Wales. RD: Berwick upon Tweed, Northumberland. 2nd Q., 1866. BRIMER, Elizabeth. Vol. 10b. p. 238. http://ancestry.co.uk : accessed 8 June 2016.
[ii] Burials (PR) England. Oxendean, Northumberland. 6 November1819. BRIMER, John. Collection: Northumberland Burial Index
[iii] Monumental inscriptions. England. St Cuthbert’s Churchyard, Norham, Northumberland. BRIMER family. Transcription. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~agene/norhammi/index.html : accessed 21 June 2016.
[iv] Obituary. (1905) Portsmouth Evening News. 12 July. p. 4g. Collection: British Newspapers. http://www.findmypast.co.uk : accessed 21 June 2016.
[v] Death index. RD: Gateshead, Durham. 1st Q., 1914. BRIMER, George. Vol. 10a. p. 11. http://ancestry.co.uk : accessed 21 June 2016.
[vi] Death index. RD: Gateshead, Durham. 1st Q., 1914. BRIMER, George. Vol. 10a. p. 1159. http://www.findmypast.co.uk : accessed 21 June 2016.
Brimer-Brymer database last updated at 2016-07-02 00:29:43 with 4028 census records and 2856 individuals