Nana’s father was born James Bready on August 9, 1865 in Beith, Ayrshire, Scotland.  He was the third child of Thomas Bready and Sarah McComb.  Somewhere along the way, he picked up the middle name Thomas, after his father.

Right here is a really good place to give kudos to ScotlandsPeople, “the official government source for genealogical data for Scotland.”  For a small fee, you can locate and download vital statistics data and census information from within Scotland.  They also list some information for wills.   Their website is at http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/ .   While I did actually go over to Edinburg at one point to get my gr-grandfather Lamond’s birth certificate in the days before the internet, using the website is much more cost-effective and efficient, and I’d have been so much less productive without it!  I can’t praise Scotland enough for this wonderful site.

Now back to James.  The historical spelling of his last name was B-R-E-A-D-Y, but it was Anglicized to Brady when he and his mother and siblings (his father Thomas had died in 1875) immigrated to the United States in 1881.  The six of them – mother Sarah and children Joseph, James, Thomas, Sarah, and John arrived on September 27 of that year on board the EGYPT out of Liverpool, England to New York.  From that point on, their last name remained B-R-A-D-Y (Sarah and her children can be found in Lancashire, England in the 1881 census where their surname is spelled B-R-E-A-D-Y). James Brady and Annie Dougan married on April 27, 1887 in Fall River, Massachusetts, and James died on January 1, 1932 also in Fall River.

In the 1900 census, James is living with his wife Annie and three of their children at his mother’s residence.  Also living there with their 60-year-old mother is his younger brother John, age 27, as well as two boarders from Ireland.  As an example of the errors that can be in the census data, James is listed as born in August 1866.  His original birth certificate gives that information as August 1865.  Another error is his mother’s birth.  In the 1900 census, it is given as May 1840 in England.  We’ll come back to this later.  His brother John’s birth is given here as being in May 1873 in England, which is another error.  The three children’s birth data is correct, however, as is James’ wife Annie’s.  Sarah, John, and James are stated as having immigrated in 1880, when we know by the ship’s passenger list that they arrived in 1881, and Annie is listed as immigrating from Canada, where she was born, in 1878.  James and Annie are listed as being married for 13 years – which is true – and Annie up to this date had given birth to four children, three of whom are still living, which is also true.  I use census information, therefore, as a guide leading roughly to where and when to find the actual primary documentation of a person’s movements, rather than as a primary source document itself.

James, known as Jim, was said by my mother to be a short man.  My mother remembers seeing him when she was very young, and this is her recollection rather than that notated on any document.  The WWI draft registration cards which can be found through another really great website at http://www.ancestry.com/ are a wealth of information on men living in the United States at that time.  Ancestry.com is a fee-based site for genealogical research, but I have found it an invaluable tool and worth the cost.  While height is given on these registration cards, James was not in the age group to be registered, and so his height can’t be verified from that source.

Just a few words about the WWI draft registration cards.  There were three registrations for the draft for WWI.  The first was on June 5, 1917 and was for men residing in the US who were born between June 6, 1886 and June 5, 1896.  The second registration was exactly one year later, and was for men who had turned twenty-one years of age within that year, as well as any others born within the time frame who were not already registered.  On August 24, 1918 a supplemental registration was meant to apply to those who had turned twenty-one since the June 1918 registration.  The last registration was held on September 12, 1918.  It was for all men not previously registered or currently serving who were born between September 11, 1872 and September 12, 1900, identifying men aged 18 to 45.  The cards usually give full name, address, date of birth, and information of employment as well as the nearest relative, such as a wife or mother.  As you can see, these registration cards can be invaluable in locating and identifying information on males living within the United States who were born between those years.

According to my mother, James had a habit of leaving his wife and returning to Scotland to visit his mother when Annie was with child.  She was told he did not like to see his wife suffering from morning sickness, and this was his way of avoiding it.  Unfortunately for Annie, she often was not left with sufficient funds during the times when he was away.  The girls helped by working when they were old enough and turning over their pay to their mother.  Even so, there were some very tight times.  My mother often speculated on Viola’s condition possibly being attributed to her mother’s poor diet during the pregnancy, due to insufficient financial means.  Be that as it may, Annie was alone with her four surviving daughters in Fall River in the 1910 census although listed as married, alone with her four girls in the 1920 census in Fall River and listed as divorced, and alone in 1930 with her youngest daughter Ruthie in Fall River and again listed as married.  As far as I know, there was never a legal divorce between James and Annie, and they were simply either estranged or back together.  It could not have been easy for her.  In 1910 James was in fact living with his mother’s brother James McComb in Warren, Rhode Island.  I haven’t been able to definitively locate him in 1920 or 1930 even though Annie would have been past childbearing age by that time.  All of which makes me reject the idea that he went back to Scotland repeatedly, as I was led to believe.  For one thing, his mother was in Rehoboth, Massachusetts during that time, not in Scotland.  I think that Annie may have asked him to leave, and said he went to Scotland to save herself the shame of publicly facing whatever difficulties existed between them.  I was told that when James died in 1932, he was buried in another person’s grave.  I have no idea whose, or whether in Fall River or elsewhere.

© Deborah Ray and archivecookie.com, 2010.