Hi Ashley, I'd say that it is quite possible that your grandfather adopted the name "St. Clair", if he was raised by his aunt Elizabeth McEwan and uncle Alexander Sinclair for a great part of his life. As you found his sister's birth registration showing her to be illegitimate, and suspect that he was as well, it would be a fair reason to adopt the name of the family who cared for him. However, the spelling on Islay was never "St. Clair". If your theory is correct, why not also adopt a new spelling for himself? I believe there is also another connection between the McEwans and the Sinclairs > Ann (Agnes)McEwan from Cruach married Archibald Sinclair from nearby Mullindry in 1835. I have a note that she was the daughter of Hugh McEwan and Sarah Kennedy, and sister of John McEwan. Unfortunately, I didn't note the source, but it might have come from Iain Sinclair. That would make your Elizabeth the niece of Ann. Ann and Archibald went to Glasgow and started a printing business called the Celtic Press. I believe Alexander Sinclair also went to Glasgow and was in the printing occupation. I was wondering if your grandfather also went into this type of work? Also, were there other children named in the 1901 census in the Sinclair household? Toni Sinclair tracing all Islay Sinclairs >From: <ashley@rosslynhealth.co.uk> >Reply-To: sct-islay@rootsweb.com >To: <sct-islay@rootsweb.com> >Subject: [SCT-ISLAY] McEwan St Clair Name Change >Date: Sat, 23 Sep 2006 14:19:58 +0100 > >Hi Everyone > >Having lurked on the list for some time I would like to ask for your >opinion >on a weak link in my family research. > >I suspect that my forebears come from Islay, partly from vague family >tradition and partly from a tentative conclusion drawn from the following >initial research. > >My grandfather was John McEwan St. Clair. His death certificate and >marriage >certificate both suggest he was born around 1883-1884 and had parents >Alexander St. Clair and Elizabeth St. Clair nee McEwan. Although he was a >proud Scot I can find no record of his birth in Scotland, even allowing for >a few years leeway and the very many spellings of St. Clair and Sinclair. >Nor can I find him in England & Wales (GRO), or anywhere easily searchable >on the Internet. > >But I have found, in the 1901 census, Alexander Sinclair and his wife >Elizabeth McEwan living in Cathcart, Glasgow, along with their nephew John >McEwan (17) and niece Annie McEwan (23). This would make John McEwan the >same age as my grandfather, and living with, if not adopted by, a couple >with remarkably similar names to the people my grandfather claimed were his >parents. The 1891 census shows the same (presumably) John McEwan (7) and >Anne McEwan (13) living in Cruach, a rented croft near Bowmore, with their >grandfather John McEwan as head of the family, his son Malcolm McEwan, >Malcolm’s wife Marion and three other grandchildren. It looks as if John >and >Annie were Malcolm’s illegitimate children, whereas the other three were >born to Malcolm’s wife Marion. > >The two men of the family died in 1893 (Malcolm) and 1896 (Grandfather >John) >and there are no McEwans in Cruach after this date – presumably the tenancy >lapsed with no male older than 13 in the family. The other three >grandchildren went with their mother Marion who remarried in 1896 but John >and Annie turn up, as a mentioned earlier, with their aunt Elizabeth who >was >Malcolm’s older sister. > >Is it reasonable to assume from this somewhat circumstantial evidence that >John McEwan, having lost his father, been abandoned at age 10 to 13 by the >woman who probably brought him up as a mother, and then looked after by a >family of Sinclairs, might have changed his name to John McEwan St. Clair? >Or is it more likely that my grandfather was born a St. Clair but the birth >was never recorded or remains for me to find? > >Finally, I know that changes of name were rarely recorded in Scotland at >that time, but can any list members think of any other way to refute or >verify my theory? > >Many thanks > >Ashley > > > >Ashley St. Clair > >"It ain't so much the things we don't know that gets us in trouble. It's >the >things that we know that ain't so." - Artemis Ward > > > > >-- >No virus found in this outgoing message. >Checked by AVG Free Edition. >Version: 7.1.405 / Virus Database: 268.12.8/455 - Release Date: 22/09/2006 > > >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >SCT-ISLAY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the >quotes in the subject and the body of the message _________________________________________________________________ Buy what you want when you want it on Sympatico / MSN Shopping http://shopping.sympatico.msn.ca/content/shp/?ctId=2,ptnrid=176,ptnrdata=081805