The McNairn Times

Well, here it is, the middle of December, and it’s time again for more exciting news of the McNairn family. It’s also a time of celebration throughout the world--Christmas, Hanukkah, Ramadan, Kwanzaa, and others. Let’s pause and think of how lucky we are to have the things we do--health, freedom, friends, and most of all, family.

Merry Christmas to all this month - hope you have a good Christmas visiting with families. I came across a very interesting book that a friend of mine has - called the "The Timetables of History." It tells what happened in various categories each year over the course of history, beginning with 5000 years before Christ - with the Egyptians and Babylonians all the way to 1990. It is a large book and definitely fascinating.

I thought I would look at some of the things that happened at various times of our McNairn history.

First of all the name seems to show up originally in Scotland in the late 1300’s - According to a writer in 1509 - there was a M’Narne who was a tenant farmer in Dumfriesshire in 1376 the same year Wenceslas, son of Charles IV was crowned the King of the Romans. In 1388, the Scots defeated the English in the Battle of Chevy Chase, a year later in 1389, there was a truce between England, Scotland and France after a great deal of war. On into 1509 - the next actual mention of a McNairn - as a tenant under Stewart of Appin. 1509 was the year King Henry the VIII was crowed king of England after his father (Henry the VII) died.

The oldest McNairn ancestor I can currently document was born around 1650 - and at that time there was a great deal going on in England Including England declaring a Commonwealth, Oliver Cromwell invaded Ireland. It was also the opening of the first coffee house in England and also when tea was first drunk in England. In 1670 the Hudson’s Bay company was incorporated by royal charter to trade in the region of North America draining into Hudson Bay. And guess what in 1677 Ice cream became popular as a dessert in Paris.

Keep tuned next month and I will tell you more about what happened in the 18th and 19th centuries.

No one loves the internet more than I do, as you may know. I spend a good part of each day on the computer, writing to friends, keeping up with genealogy and other newsgroups, doing research, and just generally learning new things. Here are some things that I’ve found out this month!

Over the course of several days, I just sat in front of my computer and began a very intimate relationship with the search engine, Google.com. I typed in "McNairn" and proceeded to investigate every website that it brought up….all the way to the END of the listings. I also took specific names from my Personal Ancestral File, the genealogy program that I use (you can download it for free from http://www.familysearch.org) and typed them in, which resulted in even MORE hits.

Now, I knew we had McNairns in Canada, the United States, Scotland, England, and Australia. I hadn’t personally seen much of the information on the ones from England and Australia, but I knew they were there. I also found out that we have McNairns in Jamaica as well! And possibly in Ireland.

Some of the websites had email addresses listed for the individual McNairns, so I made a list of all the email addresses and proceeded to email all the McNairns I possibly could. Judi and I are tentatively planning on writing in the future to the individuals who did not have email addresses.

It’s really interesting to see where some of these McNairns are. Of course, we are pretty sure that the name originated in Dumfriesshire, as Judi previously mentions. And Cheryl’s 4xGreat-Grandfather, John McNairn, came over from Scotland to the US initially, then moved to Ontario. So, there are quite a few McNairns in Ontario. But there are also McNairns found in Canada in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Alberta, Newfoundland, and Saskatchewan. And in the US, I have found McNairns mentioned in Texas, New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Arkansas, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Indiana, Ohio, North Carolina, Georgia, Washington, Maryland, California, and Minnesota.

In Australia, the majority of McNairns seems to be found in the Traralgon area.

In Scotland, of course, most of the McNairn names seem to pop up around places like Newton Stewart, Minnigaf, Penninghame, Wigtown, and other places in Dumfries. I’ve also found McNairns in Hawick, Glasgow, Ayrshire, and Galloway. And we do have our newest "cousin", Ian McNairn, who runs this great website called, interestingly enough, McNairn.com! Yes, the address is http://www.mcnairn.com. With luck I or Judi will be doing an article on Ian, his family, and his website in a future newsletter.

I also just did a Google search for a variation of the spelling, McNarin, and came up with even more interesting possibilities, which I am still working on. There aren’t as many links as there were with "McNairn", but plenty of things to investigate. And let’s not forget other variations….McNerron, MacNairn, M’Narine, etc.….just to name a few. This is so much fun!

I am working on a listing of all the folks who subscribe to this newsletter, and some who don’t, who would like to have their name, email, and/or snail mail listed in a McNairn Directory that would be made available to the public, probably on Judi’s or my website(s), or just published via vanity press and distributed to other McNairns who are interested. If you would like to be listed in this directory, please let me know. I’m still thinking about how I would like to have the general layout, so if you have any ideas, please let me know. I’m considering the following format, using myself as an example:

Grice, Cheryl.

Email: CherylLGrice@cs.com

Location: Muncie, Indiana, USA

Address/Phone:

Personal Info: Born Zetta McNairn. 4th Great Granddaughter of John McNairn, born 1745 in Scotland. Married to Phil Grice. Three children--Alex, Jesse, and Crystal.

Once more we come to the end of the newsletter. I hope you have enjoyed this issue. If this was passed along to you and you would like to receive this free monthly newsletter, please email me at cheryllgrice@cs.com. If you would like to contribute an article about your branch of the family or yourself, let me know! I’m always looking for new material. Also if you just have story ideas….I’m open to suggestions. Some things I’m considering doing articles on are: various locales and how the McNairns arrived there; Penninghame, then and now; and The History of the Knowe Farm. I also have pictures of the area, if you are interested.

Have a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!