Stewart Clan History

• The Royal Stewarts
• The Stewarts of Appin
• The Stuarts of Bute
• Other Stewart branches

Origins of our Web site

This Web site was inspired by the sheer hard work and dedication over many years by our family historian, Patricia Ibbotson. Pat has spent much of her life during the 1970's, '80s, '90s and into year 2000 researching our family tree, collecting our history and compiling many of our personal stories into the book "Stewart Reflections". It is the story of our lives for over 5 generations, recording . And she is still going...

Thank you Pat.

Origins of our family

In 1983 Pat wrote to the Scots Ancestry Research Society in Edinburgh to request more information on the birth of our ancestor, John Stewart. The following extract is a copy of the report received from that Society.

"The microfiche index for the county of Inverness, which includes Skye, compiled by the Latter-day Saints, was consulted for John Stewart's birth under various spellings, from 1828 to 1848, but no such entry had been recorded. The microfiche index of marriages was also consulted, but there was nothing relevant under James Stewart or Janet Nicolson (John's parents).

The 1841 census schedules for the seven parishes of Skye, which are Kilmuir, Snizort, Duirinish, Bracadale, Portree, Strath and Sleat were then searched for James Stewart and family in the hope that they had not emigrated by then. There was only one entry that could possibly refer to the family:

It was thought that Susanna Nicolson could well have been a close relative, probably a sister or a niece of Janet Stewart, whose maiden name was Nicolson. With the absence of the husband, it is difficult to prove the relevance of this entry. But a James Stewart, who was a blacksmith, was found in this same schedule eleven. He was staying with some Nicolsons, who could well have been his relatives by marriage.

The 1841 census, unlike the later census schedules, does not give the condition of the individual - whether married, widowed or single - and so we cannot discover any more about this James Stewart.

The 1851 census schedules for Portree were searched for this family, but there was no trace of them and it was thought that they could possibly have emigrated by then.

Since the microfiche index is not completely reliable, the old parochial registers for Portree were searched from 1825 to 1854 for any children born to James Stewart and Janet Nicolson, but none had been recorded. Similarly, the marriage record was searched from 1821 to 1843 (blank from 1822 to 1824), but there was no reference to the marriage of a James Stewart and a Janet Nicolson."

The Society also advised that they could check for more details in the General Index of Deaths for Scotland for James and Janet or for James birth circa 1811 if these entries were relevant for this family, however it could prove to be costly if they had already emigrated to Australia.

The search was concluded at this stage until further details could be obtained on John Stewart.

It should be noted that compulsory registration of Births, Marriages and Deaths did not commence until 1st January 1855. Prior to 1855 there are Old Parochial Registers of Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, which though now in the custody of the Registrar General in Edinburgh, were compiled by local church authorities. They begin at various dates from the early nineteenth century to the late sixteenth, were sometimes irregularly kept, are seldom indexed and in general they only relate to adherents of the Church of Scotland. So that information about ancestors who were Roman Catholics, Episcopalians or members of one of the non-established Presbyterian Churches is not likely to be found there. In short, there is no guarantee that a search in those records will be fruitful.