Ian very quickly hit a brick wall on his paternal line, when he got to his great grandfather. Working independently, Jane also hit the same brick wall. The image above is the record of a marriage for Joseph Leigh Hunter and Jane Johnston nee Kerr. Above was the start of Read more
We tried searching for Leigh Hunter and Kate Walton. The searches returned results for Kate or Catherine Walton, though nothing linked her to a Leigh Hunter! Searches for Leigh Hunter turned up a Leigh Rigby Hunter from Shropshire though the dates etc. were all wrong, ruling him out. The following Read more
5 years had passed since Ian first discovered the brick wall, though he tried to crack it a few times. Ian retired in late 2016 and seriously started to try to crack the “Leigh Hunter” brick wall. Ian came to the conclusion that he would never make any progress using Read more
As more time passes, Ian decides that another approach might be necessary to try and crack the family mystery. Ian was getting sort of desperate by this time. Still, he had not made any progress in finding Leigh Hunter. Ian considered trying different approaches, anything to make any progress on Read more
Joseph Leigh Hunter’s marriage certificate above shows his father to be Leigh Hunter, Coal Miner (deceased) and his mother to be Kate Walton. This is the first official record that Jane and Ian could find for their great grandfather. The wedding took place on 28 October 1898 at Tradeston, Lanarkshire, Read more
Jane has a friend who has professional genealogy knowledge. Jane asked them to take a look in to Leigh and Joseph Leigh Hunter, the following she shared with Ian in December 2020: Amid the miasma of mystery, a few things become apparent. Firstly, the name Leigh does not make sense. Read more
Thanks again to Jane and her father Joseph for this photograph of Joseph Leigh Hunter and his wife Jane Burnett Forrest Johnston nee Kerr (23 NOV 1862 – 2 JAN 1927) We use a colourised version of this photograph as the background of our website; Jane and her father believe the girl Read more
It took cousins Jane and Ian years to work out that their paternal great grandfather lied about his true identity. It seems he took the trouble to make it difficult for his family to discover that his real surname wasn’t Hunter. The only thing he couldn’t hide or lie about Read more
Image above is Jane and Ian’s Great-Grandfather Joseph Leigh Hunter, his wife and step-daughter Finding the real identity of Leigh Hunter and his son Joseph Leigh Hunter How we smashed our genealogical brick wall and made other interesting discoveries during our search to solve our family mystery DNA doesn’t Lie, Read more