Surname Saturday 2.0: The Blairs



The Blair Family
 
The Blairs are another relatively new branch of my family tree. Like the Dunlop family, I discovered them only after finding my great-great grandparents' death records in Vancouver BC. For many years, I had three sisters in the Curran family, but had no clue who their parents were. Then I discovered Elizabeth (Curran) Park's death record, and there were listed Thomas Curran and Jane Blair. Plugging that into Family search gave me not only several other children, but also a wedding record which listed both bride and groom's father.

So at this time, my Blair ancestors number two: Jane or Jennie Blair, who had at least seven or eight, possibly even more children; and her father, John Blair. I know little about him except for his name and that he had one child, but it is far more than I knew before. I continue to look for more periodically at Family Search and other sites, but I think this is one branch that will likely require a subscription to the UK BMD site to really get much further.

Like two of the other three branches in my Irish heritage, Blair is a very popular Scottish name, so I do think it possible that the family may have come to Antrim from Scotland at some point, though it is known in Ireland, so it's also possible they did not. I'll definitely keep my options open with this one. Of all the names in this branch of the tree, I think Dunlop's the most likely to be Scots-Irish over the others, and Curran the least likely. But you never know.

My Blair line, for those interested:

* John Blair has one child that I know about. I am uncertain where or when he was born or died, or the name of his wife, or anything about any other children.

* His known daughter is Jane or Jennie Blair, who is listed as having been born in 1838 in Ireland on her wedding record. She married Thomas Curran in 1860, and they had at least seven children from what I can find on Family Search: Anna, Sarah, John, Sarah Jane, Joseph, Rhoda, and Elizabeth. Elizabeth, Rhoda, and Sarah are the three sisters I had before I found anything on Family Search.

* Jennie and Thomas's children, as I currently have them listed:
+ Elizabeth Curran was born in Antrim, Ireland in 1862. She married Robert James Park in 1883, and they emigrated to America about that same year. The two had nine children, two of whom died in infancy. The two returned to Ireland soon after their last child was born, and from there to Canada, where they lived until their deaths. Elizabeth lived long enough to meet three of her great-grandchildren before her death in 1954.
+ Anna Curran was born in 1865 in Antrim, Ireland. I know nothing else about her.
+ Sarah Curran was born 1867 in Antrim, Ireland. She married John Stevenson, and I believe moved to Canada as well. I know nothing else about her.
+ John Curran was born 1870 in Antrim, Ireland. I know nothing else about him.
+ Thomas Curran was born in 1872 in Antrim, Ireland. I know nothing else.
+ Sarah Jane Curran was born 1874, and like her brothers, I know nothing else about her.
+ Joseph Curran was born 1876.
+ Rhoda Curran was born 1878. She married John Carruth, and I believe they moved to Canada together and had at least one child, possibly more, and that there was at least one grandchild, though the person I am aware of may have been her child. Other than that, I know little else about this branch.

* Elizabeth and Robert's family can be read in detail on the Park surname post.

What I don't know:

* Where John Blair was born.

* Anything about the rest of the Blair family, even if that is only John's wife.

* I assume this branch was protestant, as is most of their descendants, but as of yet, I have no absolute proof of that.

More on this line:




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About this blog

This blog is maintained by two sisters who have had a life long interest in geneology.
Mika writes here mostly about our family (Hansen, Hillinger, Bordewick, Park, etc), and her search for more information.
Shannon mostly uses this space as a place to make the many stories written about and by her husband's family (Holly, Walker, Walpole, etc) available to the rest of the family, present and future.

Our blog is named Oh Spusch! mostly because Shannon is bad at naming things. The first post I put up includes a story about the time Walker's great grandfather took his whole family out to see a play and the littlest kept saying "Oh! Spusch!" No one ever figured out what she meant by that.