Meaning of "Direct Line", please?

[Elwyn Soutter]

What might "his family is in the direct line of the Scotch Stuarts" mean, please?

I read that as a direct line to the Scottish Stewart monarchs.
or am I wrong?

Their lawful offspring are pretty well documented for obvious inheritance reasons.

[buckhyne]

What might "his family is in the direct line of the Scotch Stuarts" mean, please?

I read that as a direct line to the Scottish Stewart monarchs.
or am I wrong?

Their lawful offspring are pretty well documented for obvious inheritance reasons.

Surely it's no the offspring but the ancestor that Lisa is looking for.
The quote "his family is in the direct line of the Scotch Stuarts" is like numerous posts on here.
Some will say 'my ancestor was reputed to be from a direct line to Walter Scott' or Rob Roy or whoever.
To me it is possible that Scottish Stuarts are a reference to the monarchs.
Then again perhaps no.

[Lisa in California]

I am just on my way to work.   

Thank you all very much for contributing - I am very interested in history as well as genealogy, so anything that I can learn is fascinating to me.

While I do not have absolute proof, I do believe my ancestor's parents were John Stuart/Stewart and Jane Hamilton.  They supposedly were born in Ireland (c1790) and died in Ontario, Canada.  Hence, the possible reference to Hamilton.

While my paternal grandfather used to enjoy talking about his (English) ancestors, no mention was ever made of the Stuarts.  It came as a great surprise to find out that he had Irish ancestors.

My direct ancestor, James Stuart (born c1816), was a cooper by trade as were his brothers and possible father.  With the help of others, we know a lot about him and his family once they reached Canada - I would love to find out more about the family prior to their sailing.  It's a common wish a lot of us have, isn't it?   

Thank you again for contributing, it truly is appreciated.  Lisa

[Forfarian]

What might "his family is in the direct line of the Scotch Stuarts" mean, please?

I reckon it means that whoever wrote it is given to woolly thinking!

To me, the 'direct line' would be father -> grandfather -> great-grandfather -> great-great-grandfather and so on up the generations from son to father each time. That's rather sexist, of course, because there is a female 'direct line' from daughter to mother in every generation. By extension, there are two 'direct lines' from every ancestor - one paternal and one maternal line.

Saying that a family is 'in the direct line of the Scotch Stuarts' means nothing more than that they believe themselves to be descended from Stewart/Stuart ancestors. As this is a Scottish surname it is hardly revolutionary to suppose that their ancestors were Scottish.

And they are evidently not aware that the term 'Scotch' is not used in Scotland except as an adjective to describe mist, haggis, whisky and egg. In the 19th and 20th centuries 'Scotch' was perceived as faintly offensive when applied to Scots/Scottish people, and was not infrequently used by people who wished to denigrate or insult them.

Er .... I'll get my coat.

[sancti]

What might "his family is in the direct line of the Scotch Stuarts" mean, please?

I reckon it means that whoever wrote it is given to woolly thinking!

To me, the 'direct line' would be father -> grandfather -> great-grandfather -> great-great-grandfather and so on up the generations from son to father each time. That's rather sexist, of course, because there is a female 'direct line' from daughter to mother in every generation. By extension, there are two 'direct lines' from every ancestor - one paternal and one maternal line.

Saying that a family is 'in the direct line of the Scotch Stuarts' means nothing more than that they believe themselves to be descended from Stewart/Stuart ancestors. As this is a Scottish surname it is hardly revolutionary to suppose that their ancestors were Scottish.

And they are evidently not aware that the term 'Scotch' is not used in Scotland except as an adjective to describe mist, haggis, whisky and egg. In the 19th and 20th centuries 'Scotch' was perceived as faintly offensive when applied to Scots/Scottish people, and was not infrequently used by people who wished to denigrate or insult them.

Er .... I'll get my coat.

You missed out Donald tRUMP 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pbTmXsfiYk


Apologies for some of the language

[GR2]

Ramsay's book of Scottish proverbs (18th century) includes the saying "A' Stuarts are no sib to the King".

[Forfarian]

Thanks for that, Sancti.

My PC seems to have some sort of block on playing videos of you-know-who.

[Lisa in California]

Thank you for the continued interest.

The remarks about John Stuart can be found in the following book (it is one of two sources that I've found).
http://www.rootschat.com/links/01jgz/
  "Rev. John Stuart", page 104
Having said that, who knows if any/all of the comments are true.

To my knowledge, all of my ancestors (maternal and paternal), to date, were common people, working as merchants, carpenters, teachers, rope maker, butchers, etc.  Nothing was ever mentioned about the Stuarts - with the exception of handing down the surname, even giving it as a middle name to a female descendant (and she had two brothers).

I don't have any "famous" ancestors which is fine, as I'm just happy to have found out about their lives and how some of them lived.  I research to get to know my ancestors, to learn about life "back then" and to learn about different parts of the world.  Researching has been a lot of fun - now, if only I could break down some of those Irish brickwalls.   

PS  As I'm trying to post this, I see that a new reply has been posted.  I have to get back to work, so I'm posting it without first reading the reply. 

[djct59]

Forfarian: Appeals from the Court of Session to the House of Lords were known in the 19th Century as "Scotch Appeals", so it was not always used pejoratively