Shairps of Houstoun.....

[arcona]

I am researching my father's family, the Shairps of Houstoun, and have been very successful thanks to the fantastic amount of information Scotland has made available on the net. I have been able to follow this family backwards from Canada to Scotland in 1600, but have been unable to connect up everyone properly in the early generations because of the constant repetition of the same given names for more than six generations. I am particulary interested in Alexander Shairp who was the Treasurer for the city of Edinburgh, a Director of the Royal Bank of Scotland, and a merchant.

Is there anyone out there who has ever seen a family tree for this family? They were weathy and prominant in the 17th through the 19th century but I can't seem to find anyone else in the world who is currently researching them. I acquired a small privately published book from 1850 written by Stephen F. Shairp with some family lineages, but parts of it seem to contradict what I find in the Scottish archives. Anything I have found on the genealogy sites on the web seem to use his work as their sole source.

I would appreciated hearing from anyone who knows anything about this family, or who knows of any publication with information about them.

Arcona

[CatrionaL]

Hi Arcona

May I give you a warm welcome to Talking Scott. I hope some help or information will be forthcoming.

You have done a lot of research, so it's highly probable that you have already found Alexander Shairps Testament Dative on the ScotlandsPeople web site. However thought I'd mention it just in case you hadn't.

Best wishes
Catriona

[arcona]

Hi Catriona

Thanks for such a quick reply. I did find the Testament on the Scotland's People page and bought it yesterday and I am still deciphering it. I thought it would be a will but it seems to be a legal document regarding his estate and his executor but with only limited information about his bequests and beneficiaries which I was really hoping for. Perhaps there is another document with more detail somewhere - I'll continue my search for that.

My main search is for the link between Alexander Shairp, from whom I descend, and the rest of the Shairps from Houston. He is clearly part of that family, but I can't place him anywhere. In Stephen Shairp's book, he says Alexander the merchant is the son of Thomas of Houston, but looking through many many archived summaries of Sasines, there is only one Alexander and he is the son of John of Houston and is about 30 years earlier than any Thomases or the given birthdate for Alexander. In that document, Alexander relinquishes his claim to Houstoun in exchange for a large cash endowment to set himself up as a merchant.

My quest continues - I hope someone else knows something about my Alexander.
- Arcona

[joette]

I know this is pretty simplistic but often we tie ourselves in noughts & it is the simple explenation that are the ones.
If he was inccorrect in his other info may he have got the names wrong too or do you have other sources to compare?

[arcona]

Hi Joette -

Thanks for your comments. I do agree that sometimes we just have to accept mistakes and go with it. The little book by Stephen Shairp is correct for the most part as I have found birth records, etc. that substantiate most of what he says. But he was old when he wrote his family history so the part where I think he was incorrect was the oldest information he gave, i.e., more than 125 years before he was born and happened nearly 200 years before he wrote it.

The only reason I am so hung up on where the connection is is because I have huge amounts of information on the Shairps of Houstoun, and huge amoungs of information on the descendants of Alexander Shairp right up to the present day and I can't connect them up in my Family Tree Maker.

It's difficult to find personal information from the 1600s because the best source is estate information and he waived his right to it so his family seems to disappear for 50 or 60 years. I think I'll move on to cemetery records and see if they help.

- Arcona