Mary Ann Fairbrother

AUDITED 16 Aug 2026 - SURNAME CORRECTED FROM MASON TO FAIRBROTHER. Five Roman Catholic baptism entries of her children at Esh Laude St Michael's, Lanchester, Co. Durham (Durham Records Online 419739, 412606, 423665, 409647, 409118) name the mother FAIRBROTHER in every one: Mary (1831), Margaret (1833), Mary (1835), Mary (1837), Mary Ann (1839). The 1839 entry reads "Mary Ann Fairbrother", which is this tree's given name exactly, so the given name is unchanged and only the maiden surname was wrong.MASON IS UNSUPPORTED. Before this correction the surname Mason appeared exactly once in this database, on her alone, and she carried zero citations.DISCREPANCY, recorded and NOT resolved: the 1833 entry for her daughter Frances reads "Margaret Farbrother" where the 1831, 1835, 1837 and 1839 entries read Mary or Mary Ann. Four of five agree and the outlier is bracketed on both sides, so a two-wives reading would require the sequence Mary-Margaret-Mary-Mary Ann inside eight years within one surname. Read here as a clerical slip - but the register says Margaret, and that stands recorded. A mechanism is available: the 1835 entry baptises a child born 17 Jul 1834, about twelve months late against this family's usual 2-8 days, which is the signature of a retrospective write-up in which a neighbouring name can bleed into the wrong line.STILL UNSOURCED, and NOT covered by these baptisms: her birth (1793, Warrington, Lancashire) and her death (June 1856, Durham). Both carry no citation and may have arrived from whatever supplied the surname Mason. Do not read this correction as evidence for either.Full account: ancestry/documents-read-index.md K139-K142; ancestry/parentage-rings-plan.md.