Disappointing.....

[Maud Jarvis]

How disappointed I am that I have achieved nothing in my search for the BARR family from Greenock, there seemed to have been such a big family of them, that I thought, surely today, one of them or a relative, would have been iterested in researching their family.
Perhaps there has been, but they are not interested in contacting me, or would I have been an embaressment? my father having been born on "the wrong side of the blanket"

Looks like my questions must remain unanswered, I would so much have liked to have known about the circumstances regarding my father`s birth, but alas, that door must remain closed. I have a photo of his mother, what a stern unhappy woman she looked, I wonder what kind of life she had? did she marry only for the sake of respectability? was her marriage happy or not?, I would so loved to have known.

I have been able to do quite a lot of research about their various marriages etc, but I would have loved to have known a little more about their descendants.
Ah well,I have to acept that I`m not going to be enlightened any more about the family.
I was also informed that one of the family emigrated to USA and I had hoped so much I was going to at last connect to a descendant, his name had Cameron Barr as his middle names, hope glowed, but alas it came to nothing, the person concerned had assured me that he was going to meet him, but I have heard nothing since, so that openening too, must be laid to rest along with the rest of them.

But, as I mentioned at the beginning, it is a big Disappointment. Still, there glows a little hope yet in my heart, that one day....!

[CatrionaL]

Maud

Yes I can understand that you must be very disappointed not to have connected with your father's family. You have been so persevering in your search.

With you, we hope that One Day..............

Would love to be able share my Barrs with you, but they were way back in the 17th century and the name disappeared from our tree when my 6th GGrandmother married.

Kind regards

Catriona

[ninatoo]

Maud, all things are possible! I hope this story gives you hope.

In 1937 a three year old girl in Glasgow was orphaned, and was brought up by her maternal grandmother. Although her father's family lived in Glasgow too, she was never allowed to meet them and grew up not knowing a thing about her own father's family.

She married and moved to Australia in the sixties, and raised her own family, never forgetting her lost relatives. When a computer became available to her a few years ago, she dabbled a bit trying to find her father's family.

Meanwhile on her dad's side of the family, two cousins were trying to find her, writing messages on the various sites. They had been told she had left Glasgow for America at a young age, so concentrated their search there.

Enter Nina in 2002

I happened to be searching for my great grandmother's parents, and made a connection with one of the cousins mentioned above as we had all the same family names but couldn't find the common link as the dates were all out.....so I kinda put him on the back burner.

Well I was in a genealogy chatroom at the end of last year bemoaning the fact that I couldn't find these Cotterill relatives of mine, and someone happened to browse genesreunited while chatting and mentioned a Freda Cotterill was looking for family. My ears pricked up because I remembered that was the name of the person that the cousin was looking for, so I went and had a look. Then I went back to have a look at the cousin's posts and couldn't believe my eyes.

You see, he had mentioned a maiden name that I hadn't yet seen back in 2002, but I knew it well in 2005. He WAS my family...and perhaps this Freda was too! The reason the dates didn't match up is of course because two generations had almost the exact same christian names!

I emailed them both...and YES, Freda found us, and we found her and I found my Cotteriils, which was great. But the best thing is that she lives in Australia like me, and we have all met up, just after Christmas.

So, Freda's father was my great great gran's nephew. So she is my third cousin, and my Dad's second cousin. But the COUSIN who was searching is indeed her first cousin and his mother, HER father's sister is still alive. So she has a whole new family, photos and stories that she is only getting to know about after 70 years.

Miracles DO happen Maud....and this was one of them. Never give up...it can happen for you too!

Nina

[Alison Plenderleith]

What a lovely story, Nina. I do love happy outcomes!

Maud, as Nina says, All things are possible. Never give up.

Kind regards,

Alison

[Maud Jarvis]

Thank you Nina for that story, as you say, miracles are possible, so hopefully perhaps one day it may happen. I still keep a wee spark of hope in me yet, but I`m not getting any younger, and hope that time will not run out for me!

[Russell]

Hello Maud

Just to let you know there are still Barrs in the general area.

There is at least one Barr family in Bridge of Weir which is only 10 miles from Greenock/Port Glasgow; and another in Kilbarchan a mere 2 miles further on.
The Kilbarchan line goes back at least as far as 1841 - I found them on the census. The sole survivor of that family is elderly and has no surviving family himself.

Wanted you to know that the name is still around in this area even if it is not in your direct line.

Russell

[Maud Jarvis]

Thank you Russell,

It does seem that Barr is a fairly common name, but how I do wish amongst them, there were some that I` m searching for, but if there are, they have yet to surface in my direction!

I think I have covered all sources that exist in searching for them, but never with any success so far. Sadly my mother did not allow us any contact with my father`s side after he died in 1941, and as I was just a little girl then, I have no memory of who they were or where they were.

Only one lot, that lived in Rutherglen, I think the auntie was related to my father, and that they had a holiday "hut" in Coylton Ayr, we spent a week there before the second war, but I never saw these relations again after my father died. My mother was a strange woman, she did not seem to want her family to know any of our relations, except her, she was the centre, but we were kept in ignorance! and what a struggle it has been for me, trying to trace all the family, which I should have known had my father lived.

Still, I have hopes that perhaps one day....

[Russell]

Hello Maud

We had a similar situation on my wife's side. We didn't actually know about a whole section of her family. All contact had been broken off in the 1940's. We got a vague clue just before my mother-in-law died then out of the blue from GenesRe-united we had a response from a cousin. She had no idea that she had an entire battalion of relatives and it only took one name shared to make the bridge between us. We were able to give her four or five generations of relatives and we now have fairly regular phone calls and will probably get together one of these months.

Don't despair they must be out there somewhere!!!

Russell

[Liz Turner]

Hi Maud

Like the messages from the others - don't give up! My family too lost contact with the descendents of one of my grandmother's brothers. The family were split up in 1910 with two children being left in Scotland and four others being taken to Canada with their father and his new wife.

Off and on over about 20 years following my gran's death, I tried to track them down, and then one day I googled one of the names purely at random. It led me to a web site in Canada where this person's name appeared and low and behold, I emailed the webmaster, she passed on my details and that was it! After last knowing about them in Alberta, I'd found the grandaughter of my own gran's brother.

The moral of the story is don't give up.

Liz

[Cathy]

Hi Maud,
does your Barr family have any connection to the name Love?