Brown Family tree

The BROWN family is proving very difficult to trace, especially when they married SMITHs. Thomas BROWN is the patriarch, born in or near New Orleans in the USA about 1845. He was a Sergeant in the US Army. He married and raised his family in London in the UK.

He must have died about 1886 leaving the family in poverty. The 2 elder boys went into the army at age 14, the girl into service and then Australia.

The VARLEY family have proved much easier, although of Huguenot descent, arriving in the UK late 1600s or early 1700s. they stayed largely in West Yorkshire in the UK, in and around Huddersfield and Slaithwaite in Calderdale.

In the 1700s they were clockmakers, then mill workers and worked their way up. Arthur VARLEY, my grandfather, became a director of the Co-operative Wholesale Society, a very big and powerful commercial organisation during the early 1900s.

For much more detail, have a look at the family tree published on the ROOTSWEB site.

Or as published with "Family Tree Maker"

I have transcribed several family documents, wills, obituaries, reports and news items.

BROWN : Thomas, born 1845, in New Orleans, USA.

                Walter, born 1872, Hoxton new town, Shoreditch, Middlesex, UK.

                Walter Ellis, born 1907, Bowerham Barracks, Lancaster, , Lancashire, UK.

                Roger Bannister, born 1938, Stretford, Manchester, UK.

VARLEY : Early 1700s, Probable Huguenot descent, in Slaithwaite, West Yorkshire, UK.

                Edith Margaret, born 1902, Lancaster, Lancashire, UK.

SMITH :   From Great Grimsby, Lincolnshire, UK.

SHEARD :Kirkheaton, West Yorkshire, UK.

WATERMAN : Lambeth, London, UK.

STUDD : Canterbury, Kent, UK.

WOOD :  West Yorkshire, UK.

WHITELEY : West Yorkshire, UK.

WILKINSON :   West Yorkshire, UK.

SYKES :  West Yorkshire.

ARGRAVE : Tiverton, Devon then Canterbury, Kent, UK.