Williamson

[Philipson]

To  the Lady looby --
and the bonnie lass, Monica.

Much thanks. Your generous advice and counsel was
invaluable to me. This started on a lark, but is beginning to snowball.

All the sites you both  found were spot on.

Many many thanks.  If I could ever be of any possible help to you or anything
you wanted to know   that  I could answer you please post me here.

Philip's son.

PS.  (Three of the most stupid things tourist  Americans say to Scots.)

1. When is  the weather  going to clear up?
2. What's really  going on underneath there?
3. Do you know the Queeen?
 

[jimjwilliamson]

I've stumbled in here quite by accident, and a happy one it may yet be.

 As far as genealogy research goes, my Williamson line has been brick-walled at my G-G-Grandfather. John McCurdy Williamson, for the 30 years I have been searching. All I had for a long time was a birthdate 14 Feb 1819, in Georgia or Tennessee, USA.
Some 8 or 9 years back one of my fathers cousins found an old family bible among her mothers things when said mother passed away, that bible gave us names for the parents of my GGGrandfather.
John Williamson (how common can it get?) and Harriet McCurdy.
US census records show John M's mother born in South Carolina (always the same), while his father is variously reported as born in Ireland, or in Virginia, USA.
 The story has always been that the Williamson and McCurdy lines are Scots-Irish, for whatever that's worth. I have not been able to track either John or Harriet so far, and John McCurdy Williamson, other than the birthdate of 1819, is a mystery prior to 1863, when he married, except for some Mexican War enlistment records from 1847 in Central Tennessee.

DNA testing, and I have done a lot of it, has provided me with some leads on Williamson families in the US, mostly back to Virginia, just no paper trail yet. It also however has given me some 'distant cousin' indicators to some Williamson's in the Peebles and Glasgow area of Scotland, and I frequently run across some matches to some Frames also in that same area.
That DNA evidence in hand, I am inclined to believe the family stories of Scottish ancestry by way of Ireland.
My haplogroup designation is a bit rare, and deeper checking would say that before Scotland the male line probably came from one of the Nordic countries, with several distant matches in Norway and Sweden.
We're pretty sure who the McCurdy line was, atDNA evidence confirms it, but again, no paper trail to tie Harriet to the family, so it's still 'guess work' until something turns up.

I was looking to see which clan, if any, those Border Williamson's might have belonged to, if anyone has any idea?

[Forfarian]

I was looking to see which clan, if any, those Border Williamsons might have belonged to, if anyone has any idea?

They probably didn't belong to any clan.

The clans, properly speaking, were a social feature of the Gaelic-speaking Highlands, not of the whole of Scotland. In fact most Lowland Scots in say the 16th and 17th centuries probably thought of clans, if they thought of them at all, as wild, dangerous and to be avoided if at all possible, and would have been horrified at the suggestion that they themselves were members of any clan.

These days the concept of a clan has been extended somewhat to include the great Border families and some Lowland ones, and the Brigadoon industry has discovered that clans are a good marketing tool and have ascribed all sorts of surnames to various clans, usually on rather tenuous grounds.

For example, you will find lists saying, 'If your name is x you belong to Clan y and can wear (i.e. buy from us) that tartan'. If you look up Adamson the list will tell you that you belong to Clan Gordon. However a moment's thought will remind you that Adam is a biblical name, used all over the English-speaking world, and that consequently there must be many sons or descendants of Adams without a drop of Scottish blood.

Likewise if you try Taylor, you will probably be told that you belong to Clan Cameron. This is based on the fact that a family of this name were known to be adherents of Clan Cameron. But if you think about it Taylor is an occupational surname, and there must be millions of Taylors whose tailor ancestor had no connection whatever to Scotland, let alone to any clan.

If your research takes you back to a person who can be shown to be a member of a clan, that's great, but don't waste your time looking for a clan connection that almost certainly doesn't exist at all. If youre surname is Williamson and you are determined to belong to a clan, then the obvious name is MacWilliam.

I am proud to be of 100% Scottish ancestry as far as I have traced it to date (to the 16th century in some lines) and I have to go back five generations to find an ancestress with a surname belonging to a genuine historic Highland clan.

[Skoosh]

Jim,  I had MacCurdy relations in West Lothian, they came originally from Bute where this name originates. From there to Ulster seems likely.

Skoosh.

[T H J WILLIAMSON]

I got the stuff about "septs" from a website (by googling williamson and clan).  It just means a division or offshoot, I think.  The trouble is that "Williamson" is an extremely common patronymic which would have arisen all over the UK independently, so proving one's descent from those who were part of Scottish clans would be difficult.  If you've got back far enough to establish a link, good for you.

Ref williamson clan which in  gealeac  was mac William son of william aglisized williamson
the clan was scattered as the clan chief tried to size the the throne of Scotland in either 900 or 1100 AD
hence no clan members of the clan. we were protected by clan gun or clan mackay hence the septs
also the williamson in Ireland were sent to ulster during the plantation so the irish williamson are of scots decent the English williamson so we're from the saxon and Norman name wilhelm  and the sons became son of wilhelm  williamson I am an ulster williamson you can tell if the are of scots descent if the are Presbyterian and if they are Catholic  they inter married in the south of Ireland they are of english/Norman mainly around Dublin

[Forfarian]

The important point to remember is that not all Williams belonged to a clan, so not all sons of William were the sons of clansmen. Although there are Williamsons attached to, or under the protection of, this or that clan, you cannot assume that any particular Williamson family ever had anything to do with any clan.

Unless you can definitely trace your own line back to a Williamson who can be proved to be a member of a family with clan links, you are much better just to forget about clans, and concentrate on the facts you can prove.

[jimjwilliamson]

Just back to re-read all this...
Nothing new in the way of successful research for me so far..
auDNA is only reliable so far back, so I've not had luck proving any UK connections yet.
yDNA does provide plenty of evidence that my Williamson line is tied to folks from Peebleshire, Lanarkshire, Stirlingshire and Perthshire.
Still not likely to be of much use to me unless I get this darned time-machine working so I can go back and interview some known ancestors...

[ankerdine]

Hi Jim and best wishes of the season.

The Williamsons; my gt gt grandfather was a John Williamson who came from Ireland to Stranraer, S.W. Scotland in c1842; is my BRICKWALL. He married my gt gt Grandmother in a CATHOLIC service in 1855. The family name has been handed down throughout my cousins but not me, which is a shame. He had 2 sons living when he married my gt gt grandmother. I think they stayed in Scotland but can't be sure.

There must be records somewhere in Ireland surely. I know his father and mother's name.

I was told the Williamsons originally came from the Shetland Isles.

Carry on searching.

Judy

[Forfarian]

The Williamsons; my gt gt grandfather was a John Williamson who came from Ireland to Stranraer, S.W. Scotland in c1842; is my BRICKWALL. He married my gt gt Grandmother in a CATHOLIC service in 1855.

Judy, did he die in Scotland? Because if so, his death certificate should tell you the names of his parents, including his mother's maiden surname.