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

Hello Ashley and welcome to the list. I will reply more fully later this week, but I know a lot about John McEwan of Cruach, he was my great great grandfather. His daughter Elizabeth married Alexander Sinclair in 1861and moved to Glasgow. They were my great grandparents. I'll be in touch. Regards, Iain Sinclair