Hello:
My ancestors came from Ayrshire. I have traced them back to Ulster, but I need a bit more information on Ayrshire BLAIRs in order to start an organized search in Scotland. Would anyone know in which parishes of Ayrshire I would find the most BLAIRs? I have strated to gather info from Ayr itself, but wonder which other parishes I should be trying.
Thanks in advance to anyone with suggestions.
Sher at Ontario, Canada

Hi There,

There are a few 1841 Census Records online at Freecens - Beith will go on line in about 2 months time but here are the Blairs in Beith in 1841 also Blairs in Dundonald in 1861.

Beith-1841:
Throws Blair John M 25y ag lab AYR
Barr Craigs Blair Flora F 15y female servant OUC
Gateside Blair James M 70y cotton hand loom weaver AYR
Gateside Blair Jean F 40y AYR
Gateside Blair James M 8y AYR
Gateside Blair Jean F 4y AYR
Gateside Blair Thomas M 50y dykebuilder AYR
Gateside Blair Margaret F 45y AYR
Gateside Blair James M 25y teacher AYR
Gateside Blair John M 20y wright jrnymn AYR
Gateside Blair Mary F 14y over sowster AYR
Gateside Blair Jean F 11y AYR
Gateside Blair Agnes F 15y AYR
Gateside Blair Thomas M 7y AYR
Gateside Blair Martha F 4y AYR
Head Street Blair Agnes F 75y thread winder AYR
Head Street Blair Jane F 35y thread winder AYR
Head Street Blair Hugh M 35y cotton hand loom weaver AYR
Nettlehirst Blair Jean F 40y female servant AYR
Threpwood Blair Elizabeth F 20y flax bleacher OUC
Townhead Blair Elizabeth F 30y linen clothes dyer OUC
Townhead Blair John M 2y AYR
Whitehouse Blair Jean F 25y over sewer AYR


Dundonald-1861:

Blair James 74 y Dundonald 1 17
Blair Agnes 67 y Craigie 1 17
Blair Janet 39 y Symington 1 17
Blair Mary 10 y Dundonald 1 16
Blair Bryce 78 y Dundonald 1 11
Blair Ann 73 y Dundonald 1 11
Blair Robert 64 y Dundonald 1 11
Blair Mary 60 y Kilmarnock 1 11
Blair Janet 47 y Symington 1 11
Blair James 28 y Dundonald 1 11
Blair Matthew 26 y Dundonald 1 11
Blair Agnes 24 y Dundonald 1 11
Blair Marianna 21 y Dundonald 1 11
Blair Agnes 30 y Irvine 4 3
Blair Thomas 20 y Dalry 5 9

Blair was a prominent name around Prestwick & Monkton at one time although the 1841 Census has only a few:

Monkton -1841:
monkton r station blair alexander m 30 railway collector ayr
monkton r station blair ann f 25 ayr
monkton r station blair hugh ramsay m 4 ayr
monkton village blair thomas m 30 labourer irl
monkton village blair izabell f 27 irl
monkton village blair janet f 4 irl
monkton village blair thomas m 3m irl
monkton village blair william m 25 labourer irl
monkton village blair margret f 25 irl
monkton village blair agnes f 2m irl
monkton village blair william m 45 surface man ouc
monkton village blair ann f 45 ayr
newlands farmhouse blair james m 45 ag labourer ayr


Hope this is of some help.

John Strawhorn's Book on Prestwick is worth a look.

Regards

Duncan

Hi Sher
My Blairs are the Prestwick/Newton on Ayr ones. They originated from Carlton in Glasgow. They arrived in Ayr during the 1880s, John Hamilton Blair (gggrandfather) with his wife Agnes Scott. Their son Thomas Scott Blair was my great grandfather and his son was also John Hamilton Blair (grandfather) born 1913.

If I can be of any further assistance please let me know or I can put you in touch with someone else who has researched this line if its the same line as yours.
Cheers
Audrey MacLeay
Kilmarnock, Scotland

My Blairs are earlier than those mentioned by the other 2 replies.

I believe Blair is a big name in Ayr because it was a gentry family or whatever you call them. I think there is a Blair Castle in the area too.

I have William Blair b.abt 1766 in Dalry, Ayr and he married Margaret Miller 1789 in Dalry.

Their children born in Dalry:
Catherine 1790
Magdalene 1791
Hamilton 1793
Jean 1795 m. William Stirrat 1816 in Kilwinning
Agness 1797
John 1798
Charlotte 1801
Jane 1803
William 1805
Georgina 1807
George 1809
Thomas 1810

Could I suggest that the Thomas Blair in the 1861 Dundonald Census, age 20 born Dalry could quite easily have been one of your Blair family.

Despite the lack of public transport people in Ayrshire tended to move about a lot in search of work.

The Blairs of Adamton (near Monkton) who exercised some control over Prestwick from 1474 till 1570 are pobably part of your Blair family as Adamton was acquired in the 14th century by James Blair of Blair in the Parish of Dalry, whose possession in the year 1363 is recorded. That north Ayrshire family had been rewarded for support of Bruce by some grants of forfeited properties.

Regards

Duncan

Valerie:
This is more into my own time frame, though I do thank all who responded earlier, as every bit of information just might become useful at some point in the future - who knows!
My own William Blair was born 1780 - probably somewhere in Cty Armagh, Ireland - but not sure yet. He had a brother (well we think it's his brother) born 1776, named Thomas. As all the BLAIRs are likely related (common ancestor way back in 1300's somewhere I suspect)I am confident that Ayrshire holds the secrets to my own lineage. Now, if only I could find out which Blair families went to Ireland and when. I suspect it was to fight for William of Orange and were rewarded with Ulster lands sometime after the Battle of the Boyne.
Now, if only I could come across a muster list for King William's troops!! Ah, pipe dream, of course - don't we all wish for something like that!!
Thanks Valerie for your response.
Sher at Ontario, Canada.

My Great grandfather was John Blair born in fermanagh about 1858. His parents were William Blair and Margaret Craig/Cregg. I have been told that the Blairs moved from Scotland to Ireland and back again , however I cannot prove this. John Blair did move to Ayrshire from fermanagh and marry Elizabeth O Hara . The lived in tarbolton, st quivox. Alot of their children lived in Drongan.


liz

The Ireland connection could explain how my William Stirrat born in Donegal 1787 would know his wife Jean Blair. I have Jean born in Scotland 1795 and the couple was married in Scotland. But maybe Jean's family knew the Stirrats in Ireland?

Valerie:
I have a funny feeling that as we all search back and back through our Ulster Scots we will find there was probably a lot of travel back to Scotland and to relatives and friends still there, and that down through the generations these ties were kept between families.
I also believe we will find that conditions and affluence were a lot better than we are lead to believe - yes, the famine changed all that, and the native Irish may not have faired very well, but I think the transplanted Scots were far better off and could afford to travel back and forth. Ships' passage was not all that much in our ancestors' time so I think we will find them quite active that way. No doubt as you go back you will find yet an earlier connection between your two families, and that this Stirrat (did I get that name right?) was a distant cousin of some sort.
I don't like using the "boards" to continue a discussion - I can't keep the original e-mail in front of me for reference. So if you are replying please send direct to me at:
lmjassoc@durham.net.
Talk to you later.
Sher at Ontario.

Hi. I have some records of a gr gr grandmother named Ann Blair, b. about 1810 in West Kilbride Ayrshire. She was the daughter of William Blair and Elizabeth Frazer, m. 2 Aug., 1805 in West Kilbride. Ann Blair married Thomas Robertson b. 3 Nov., 1813. Ann Blair died on 11 April 1889 in West Templeton Quebec. Thomas died about 1895 in the same place. I have only recently started to research on this line so my information is sketchy. They emmigrated to Canada some time after 1839, as my gr grandmother Marion Boyd Robertson was born in West Kilbride in 1839, according to the family bible. In West Templeton Quebec, she married my gr grandfather James Turner.

I have no evidence of any movement to Ireland and back, but as I've said, I've just started on this line. Does anyone recognise this group? Thanks.
Brenda Turner

Hi Brenda:
I do not think there is any connection (directly) between the two families - going on what I know now, however, further research may prove that we are indeed related.
Our William Blair came here to Canada (to Quebec) in 1834-5. However I believe he was here much earlier - 1803 to be exact, when he married Betsey Grimshaw in upper New York State and came to settle in Quebec, along with his inlaws.
I believe Betsey died, he went home to Ireland with any kids that had survived (maybe none did?!) and then in 1822 remarried and returned in 1834-5 with his new family, to take up land near where his brother Thomas had taken up William's first lot next door to the Grimshaw inlaws in about 1815 when he came out from Ireland.
Clear as mud, eh??
So, what he got up to in Ireland in those lost years, whether he went to his own ancestral homeland in Scotland, or what, is still a mystery!
So much still left to find!!
Sher at Ontario, Canada

hi my info is as followed
william blair married elizabeth frazer 2 augest 1805
children
charles blair born 9 oct 1806 married sarah hunston died 22 march 1898 in fingal tasmania
john blair born 12 july 1808
ann blair 16 feb 1810