Kerrs were known as fierce left handed warriors who defended their castles with dexterous swordmanship on left handed spiral staircases (or so the story goes….)  (see my list of posts about this below)

But the Kerrs were aye the deadliest foes
That e’er to Englishmen were known
For they were all bred left handed men
And fence [defence] against them there was none

(Attributed to James Hogg in The Raid of Kerrs)

The Januarist article shows visuals of how the staircases would appear.

Ferniehirst Castle (the Kerr castle in Scotland) apparently has a left handed staircase but as noted in my previous posts a 1993 study of lefthandedness revealed no significant increase in this trait in the Kerr/Carr families.

–

Related Posts:

Are you a Left Handed Kerr or Carr? – the most commented post on this blog!

Serendipity DNA – the story of our Kerr DNA match.

Google Scholar:  Left Handed Kerrs and Carrs

An academic publication of interest to us KERR researchers studies the left handedness of the Kerrs and Carrs.  This study was prompted in part by folklore that Kerrs/Carrs were fierce Scottish warriors who could ward off any enemy with their left handed swordsmanship on the left handed spiral staircases in their castles.   (See my post of January 2009 entitled “Are you a Left handed Kerr or Carr” )

This is where Google Scholar comes in.  I used it to see if I could find the full text version of the academic article.   Google Scholar came through….here it is:

The handedness of Kerrs and Carrs by Duncan Shaw and I.C. McManus, British Journal of Psychology, 84, 545-551, 1993.

–

Related posts:

“Are you a Left handed Kerr or Carr”

Serendipity DNA – our KERR DNA story and a fortuitous match.

Years ago I subscribed to Ancestry and exhausted all the leads I could find there.

Yes, that sounds a bit impossible considering they have millions of records…but this was years ago.

I was researching in Quebec and New Brunswick and just wasn’t finding what I wanted in their database at the time.  I was having more success with offline sources.

I then got busy with a new job and let my membership go for a time.

I recently re-subscribed through Ancestry’s free trial and WOW!

In the last few days I’ve been finding record after record. My genealogy friends on twitter are probably getting tired of hearing me crow about this!

Some records I had before and some I didn’t.

The New Records mean NEW LEADS!

Country of Origin and Residence

With regards to my gg-grandparents, James Kerr b. 1804 married to Jane Henderson b. 1810 Ireland I’ve found Canadian census records from the 1851 and 1861 census that state their birth was Ireland and places their residence as Sherbrooke County, Canada East (Quebec). This I had before.

Valuable Church Records

It was the Methodist church records of the rest of the family members I didn’t have. What a windfall!

I now have the following records:

• Death and Burial Records Compton Methodist Church – James Kerr d. 1873(my gg-grandfather)

• Marriage of William Kerr and Sarah Maria Ball  1873.  (my g-grandparents)

• Death record of William Kerr 1924. (my g-grandfather)
• Birth, Marriage, death records of two of William and Maria Kerr’s children
• Birth, Marriage and Death records of several of William’s siblings and their children.

• Birth and Baptism of Homer Kerr 1881. Hatley (Church of England), Quebec (my grandfather).

• Census Record  of Homer Kerr and Elizabeth Wilson 1916 in Saskatchewan (my grandparents).  Okay…there was an issue with earlier Quebec census records for Homer Kerr.  He was called “Bomer”   Yes, Bs and Hs are very similar.  It doesn’t matter. Someone took the time to index all of those records and I am grateful.   I found him!

I was accessing the BMD records through the Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection) 1621-1967. According to their web page there over 14.5 million records now.

If you were like me and let your membership go, consider trying again. You can always cancel after the free trial if you aren’t finding what you want.

I’ve been having FUN, FUN, FUN finding these records. Normally you go for ages just finding a genealogy tidbit here and there.  Genealogy friends can relate to the FUN I’m having

I’m thinking of upgrading from the Canadian collection to the World Deluxe Membership. I’ve linked to some of the census records below.  Give them a try.  Maybe you will have genealogy FUN too

[Note to my KERR first cousins reading this - drop me a line if you wish to have a copy of these records]

—

Census links for Canada:

1851 Census of Canada East, Canada West, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia

1861 Census of Canada

1871 Census of Canada

1881 Census of Canada

1901 Census of Canada

1911 Census of Canada

Census links for US:
Search US Federal Census Records
Search the 1930 Census

Other countries I’m researching:
Ireland: 1841/1851 Census Abstracts (Northern Ireland)

Ireland: 1841/1851 Census Abstracts (Republic of Ireland)

1861 Scotland Census

–

US free trial and Canadian free trial

According to a genealogy contact (Leslie Nutbrown)  in Quebec a check of the 1815-1879 birth records in Quebec do not list a Maria BALL.  There is a Sarah Ball born in 1850 in Compton, daughter of Thomas BALL and Mary BRADY.  I subsequently found both of her names “Sarah Maria” listed on the birth record of one of her children.

She married William KERR 11 March 1873 in St. John’s Anglican Church Waterville, Quebec and they had three children, Frederick James b. 1874, Bertha Eliza b. 1874 and Homer William b. 1881.  Homer was my grandfather.

She died young at age 37 on 18 November 1887 leaving behind her husband and three young children, ages 13, 11 and 6.

Young Bertha was sent to live with her Boston BALL relatives and lost touch with the rest of the family. Family stories say she moved west to Idaho (?) after her marriage but this has not been confirmed.

I wish to learn more about the BALL family in Quebec, Ireland and Boston.

If anyone has a connection (no matter how remote) to this family please comment below.

–

[This post is part of the Smile for the Camera, 21st Edition Carnival by footnoteMaven at Shades of the Departed]

My grandmother, Elizabeth (WILSON) KERR on my father’s side of the family came from Peterhead Scotland.

She was the daughter of Martin Watson WILSON, b. 1857 Scotland married to Margaret Metcalf ROBERTSON.

Martin WILSON worked on the railroad and their first residence was at Boddam, Scotland.

Martin and Margaret had four children:  Alex, Mary, Martin and Elizabeth.    Alex and Elizabeth immigrated to Saskatchewan,Canada.

Elizabeth married Homer KERR in Saskatchewan (my grandparents).

Connections?  Please comment below.

—

Related Posts:

My Grandmother was a Blue Tooner!

If you have ever hit the proverbial brick wall in your genealogy research, you will relate to my story.

I’ve been trying for years to get our KERR family tree research out of Quebec and back to a specific place in Ireland (and ultimately back to the ancestral lands in Scotland).

My genealogy detective work at both the Quebec and Ireland ends has ranged from church records, contacts at the family history societies,  searching databases  to professional genealogists…just to mention a few avenues I’ve tried.

Yet another brick wall?

Nada, nothing.  No concrete leads.  I had a professional genealogist in Quebec tell me years ago that we might never find the connection!   How discouraging is that???

But I didn’t give up. I approached my brother and said “It is your turn!”

“What?!” he replied, “You’re the family historian, not me!  How can I possibly help?”

“You can donate your DNA for family tree testing for the KERR/CARR surname project.

That’s what you can do!”

DNA Surname Testing

I had been in contact with the coordinator at the KERR/CARR surname project and he recommended Family Tree DNA to do the testing.  (CARR is one of the KERR surname variants).  Only males carry the markers of interest and they are passed from father to son on the Y-chromosome.

We decided to go for the 37 marker testing. Family Tree DNA sent the kit, Bill did a saliva swab and sent the kit back for DNA testing.

It didn’t take all that long to get the results.

A DNA Match!

We found a match! For all 37* markers.

And get this…the person that matched my brother’s DNA had the exact same name, right down to the middle name.

How is that for serendipity! (or perhaps the result of common naming patterns followed by our Irish and Scottish ancestors).

And the best part. We now know more about the KERR family.  This other Bill Kerr’s roots extend back to the mid 1800s in England.   Finally a lead to work on…

We recently paid for an upgrade to 67 markers.  (fishing for more fish so to speak).  The match with my brother’s namesake was there again and the match extended all the way out to the 67 markers.  We also found other matches.

This is very encouraging and I feel it will be with DNA that we will ultimately solve this brick wall.  As more and more individuals submit their samples the migration patterns will be revealed and more connections will be found.  I highly recommend DNA testing if your own genealogy research has run up against that proverbial brick wall.

Perhaps there are already connections at Family Tree DNA waiting for you!

Try a search and see!

My Surname Begins with Equals Contains Ends with Sounds like

Happy Hunting,
Joan

P.S. if you have KERR family connections please contact me.

UPDATE – *The initial test might have been for 25 markers.  It was February 2006 when my brother first tested.

A Family Tree is an ongoing process…but you can only go back so far until you reach a dead end (no pun intended!. )  You may be searching for your ancestors by looking up vital records like birth, marriage, divorce, and death records. It might also be helpful to know where your relatives are buried.

Verification is very important and with common surname misspellings,  often the only way to verify the right person is through the dates on vital records.  Tombstones can provide useful information such as the birth and death date….but be wary of errors.  Our KERR grave markers in Quebec say “Keer”!

There are great online resources if you know where to look. Instead of guessing, start with the obvious.  Check out the genealogy sites on line and look for cemetery records. You should be able to search by name to see what comes up along with whatever information was found on each tombstone.   To verify further I suggest purchasing a comprehensive online service that gives access to vital records…and not just for death records.  One can find birth, marriage, passenger records and a wealth of other information.  It can save a person a lot of time.

I’ve found two such services.  One is Genealogy Archives and the other is Government Records.  Both are primarily USA based.  Genealogy Archives has a search window you can try before signing up.

To Search Death Records on line click here.

My sister has red hair, my two kids have red hair and my husband used to have red hair. So did my Mom and Grandmother. My father in law too!

Red hair is the rarest natural hair color in humans (1-2% of the population) but you wouldn’t know it in our family. Redheads are found most commonly in northern and western Europeans and their descendents. The colour ranges from deep coppery tones to bright oranges and is the product of two copies of a recessive gene that has been associated with the melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R), a protein associated with fair skin, red hair and ultra violet sensitivity.*

It shouldn’t come as any surprise to know that our family, are of northern European extraction.  Our IRVINEs are from Ireland and so were the KERRs, most likely via Scotland originally.  One of my grandmothers was a WILSON from Scotland.  The other, a WOODLAND, also with northern European roots. 

My husband’s AUMACK side of the family has been traced back to Dutch settlers on the Isle of Amager, in Denmark.   His father, a MILLER and also a redhead is thought to have English ancestry.

With all those redheads in the gene pool it wasn’t a surprise that our two children turned out to be redheads. 

How many of YOU have redheads in your family?  Are they of northern European extraction?  I’d love to hear your comments.

*Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_hair

ALPHONSO CARBEE, farmer, was born in Waterville, March 8, 1843. When seventeen
years of age he went to the Western States, returning in seven years. Since then he has
resided in Compton, Coaticook and Waterville. Mr. Carbee has always followed farming.
For the past five years he has been a member of the municipal council of Waterville He
was married in Compton, January 7, 1873, to Jemima, daughter of the late James Kerr.
No children.

Genealogy connections?  Please contact me.

—

Related Links:  History of Eastern Townships, 1869, Part 3

]]> http://www.luxegen.ca/genealogy/jemina-kerr-married-to-alphonso-carbee/feed/ 1 http://www.luxegen.ca/genealogy/dictionary-of-irish-architects-1720-1940/ http://www.luxegen.ca/genealogy/dictionary-of-irish-architects-1720-1940/#comments Fri, 06 Feb 2009 21:22:45 +0000 © Joan Miller - Luxegen Genealogy. http://www.luxegen.ca/?p=1037 I’m always on the hunt for my elusive Irish relatives and despite the fact most of them were farmers and cobblers I thought it was worth a shot to check out the latest Irish database, this one the Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 – 1940.

“The period covered by the database, 1720 to 1940, begins where Rolf Loeber’s A Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Ireland 1600-1720 left off and ends with the pause in building activity in Ireland during the Second World War.

The database contains biographies of architects and others who were active in Ireland between these dates, lists of their works, and lists of writings on or by them. Although it is principally devoted to architects, it includes engineers who designed buildings and structures, some builders, some artists and craftsmen, and some amateurs and writers on architectural subjects. Builders and craftsmen are indicated by an asterisk (*).”

I searched for KERR, my paternal family line but alas there were no architects, builders or craftsman that matched up with my family tree.  That’s not to say you won’t find your elusive Irish relatives here.  Give it a shot.  Good luck!