Volume 13 , Issue 11

NW Okie's "The Good Old Days"

[The image on the left is the CRAIG family Crest we found online while searching our CRAIG ancestors.]

While the temperatures in the SW Corner of Colorado, San Juan mountains have been in the the mid-fifties, we hear from Perry, Oklahoma and Roy that he has yell daffodil (Jonquils) in bloom and more of them about to be. Here isn Southwest Colorado we are slowly melting the snow on the mountains and the creeks, streams are running rapidly.

WOW! Where does the time go when you get hooked on genealogy research? It seems like one things leads to another and the hours only seem like minutes that pass by too quickly. I have been looking for some Irish ancestors since St. Patrick's Day is just around the corner. I think most of my Irish that I have found are only Scotch-Irish (the term of Scotch-Irish was invented in America).

For instance, the CRAIG ancestors on my paternal side of the family that married into the WARWICKs. Some of the CRAIGs were born in Ulster, Donegal, Ireland, BUT . . . their ancestors were from Scotland. I am still trying to verify some of these CRAIG's, and have listed the lineage that I have come up with so far.

* William Craig (1662 - 1744), 8th great grandfather
* William Alexander Craig (1685 - 1759), Son of William Craig
* Robert Thomas Craig (1712 - 1788), born in Ulster, * Donegal, Ireland, Son of William Alexander Craig
* Robert CRAIG (1741 - 1804), born in Augusta, Virginia, Son of Robert Thomas Craig
* Nancy Agnes CRAIG (1776 - ) born in Green Bank, Pocahontas county, Virginia, Daughter of Robert Craig
* Robert Craig WARWICK (1801 - 1845), Son of Nancy Agnes Craig
* William Fechtig WARWICK (1822 - 1902), Son of Robert Craig Warwick
* John Robert WARWICK (1857 - 1937), Son of William Fechtig Warwick
* Constance Estella WARWICK (1882 - 1968), Daughter of John Robert Warwick
* Gene M MCGILL (1914 - 1986), Son of Constance Estella Warwick
* Linda Kay MCGILL, daughter of Gene M McGill

The Surname CRAIG

The surname of CRAIG is a local name, meaning "at the craig" from residence thereby. Local names usually denoted where a man held his land and indicated where he actually lived. As the name appears in early Scots records in many parts of the country it must have originated from more than one locality.

The surname is very numerous in Counties Antrim, Derry and Tyrone. In the 15th century there were three families "of that Ilk." Johannes del Crag witnessed a charter by William the Lion. John of the Craig "with his band of 300" played a decisive part in the Battle of Culblean on 30th November 1335.

Over the centuries, most people in Europe have accepted their surname as a fact of life, as irrevocable as an act of God, however much the individual may have liked or disliked the surname, they were stuck with it, and people rarely changed them by personal choice. A more common form of variation was in fact involuntary, when an official change was made, in other words, a clerical error. Among the humbler classes of European society, and especially among illiterate people, individuals were willing to accept the mistakes of officials, clerks and priests as officially bestowing a new version of their surname, just as they had meekly accepted the surname they had been born with.

In North America, the linguistic problems confronting immigration officials at Ellis Island in the 19th century were legendary as a prolific source of Anglicization.

A notable member of the name was John Craig (1512-1600) the Scottish reformer. He lost his father at Flodden in 1514. He was educated at St. Andrews, he joined the Dominicans there but fell under the suspician of heresy, and after a brief imprisonment in 1536, he went to Rome. He gained admission to the Dominican convent at Bologna.

Sir Thomas Craig of Riccarton born in 1538, was the Scottish writer of feudal law. In 1573 he was appointed justice-depute of Scotland and in 1573 of Edinburgh. The arms for Craig were registered in Riccarton, Scotland 1818. The associated arms are to be found in Sir Bernard Burkes General Armory 1884. Ulster King of Arms 1884.

Good Night, and Good Luck hunting your Scotch and Irish ancestors!   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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