Hello, One coincidence is that I was just looking that up this week. I might have mentioned before (not lately) that one set of my ancestors had the KERR and HENDERSON names. Those are common names from Scotland, and my late uncles and aunts always said their ancestors were from Scotland, and 2 sets went to the "Scottish Games" every year. But, my research found out that Patrick KERR and William HENDERSON and others in their group were born in County Sligo, Ireland, in the 1780 to 1805 timeframe. The family-group came to Canada in 1820's, and the then 5 couples had many children and thus had many descendants. None of the researchers studying them has ever been able to find out who their parents were back in Ireland. I was recently told we will "never" find out. (Some have been searching for 20 yrs.; I've been searching for 7 yrs.) In the process I thought a DNA test of a male KERR relative might help. My own uncle and a male cousin were not interested, so I tracked down a distant-cousin and he participated. The results are still coming in, but an early result showed that the name probably originated in the "Lowlands of Scotland" in the 1600's. (I won't receive more results until the end of July. But there seem to be matches to my KERR ancestors; unfortunately that's not something I've learned about yet - matches.) Betty (near Lowell, MA, USA) FYI: When William KERR, b1850's Canada, came down to Massachusetts 1870's, he married Elizabeth HANNAH. Elizabeth had arrived in the US "in a basket" - as a 3-mo. old infant. Her parents were William HANNAH and Eliza RITCHIE who left Scotland in 1857. They had another daughter, 2, when arriving who did not survive childhood. I've mentioned this couple several times before. They had been born in County Donegal, Ireland, but married in Glasgow in 1854/55. I'm told the 2 families probably migrated back and forth looking for work (~1800-1820). (Information is in archives of the Lists.)

Hi Betty Although Sligo is in the province of Connacht and not Ulster, your KERR and HENDERSON families may well have been descendants of the Scottish lowland (and English) families who were sent to colonise Ulster starting in the early 17th century and carrying on into the 18th century. Sligo is not far from Ulster. My 1995 Collins Pocket Reference book of Scottish surnames by David Dorward, has this to say about the name 'KERR': "Kerr (the Scots form of Carr) is a locality name although there is no such place nowadays. The Roxburgh branch of the family spelt their name Ker, while the Lothian branch was Kerr. There were numerous offshoots in the Borders" [two of which were united by marriage in 1631.] "From the union derive the earldom and marquessate of Lothian and the earldom and dukedom of Roxburgh. There grew up a legend that the Kerrs were left-handed, and built their spiral staircase with a left-hand thread for better defence by southpaw swordsmen; a derivation of the name Kerr (from the Gaelic 'cearr' meaning 'left' or 'wrong') has been devised as evidence, but there is nothing in history, etymology or even common sense to support this notion". The name 'HENDERSON' is according to David Dorward among the top 30 in Scotland and the distribution is very wide. It is a patronymic from the given name, Henry and its older form was 'Henryson'. Rhoda ----- Original Message ----- From: "Betty" <bbffrrpp@comcast.net> To: <LANARK@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, June 18, 2010 10:33 AM Subject: [Lanark] Lowlands (KERR, HENDERSON) > Hello, > > One coincidence is that I was just looking that up this week. I might > have mentioned before (not lately) that one set of my ancestors had the > KERR > and HENDERSON names. Those are common names from Scotland, and my late > uncles and aunts always said their ancestors were from Scotland, and 2 > sets > went to the "Scottish Games" every year. But, my research found out > that > Patrick KERR and William HENDERSON and others in their group were born in > County Sligo, Ireland, in the 1780 to 1805 timeframe.