MY BYERS FAMILY FROM DUMFRIESSHIRE

Having posted about the Andersons and the Turnbulls, I thought I should at least give some space to the origins of my own surname.

When I say "origins" I really mean back to the mid 18th century, which is as far back as my research has taken me with regard to my BYERS ancestors.

I start with Joseph BYERS, my 5xgreat grandfather, who married Catherine RICHARDSON and they had a son, John BYERS, my 4xgreat grandfather, who was born in 1766 in Lochmaben, Dumfriesshire. He seems to have previously been married, but in 1802 he had a child, James, with Jean McGILL (1780-1861). However, only a year later Jean McGill married an Alexander McWhan in Lochmaben and had five children with him. Jean, originally from Kirkmichael, died in 1861 in Shakespeare Street, Dumfries.

James BYERS, my 3xgreat grandfather, had at least 5 children with Esther RAE (born in Middlebie, Dumfriesshire in 1795). I can find no trace of a marriage, although this was still in the time of Parish Records and such records are notoriously unreliable. James, a labourer, died in Annan in 1856 and Esther, also in Annan, in 1872. Second born of these children was my great great grandfather, James BYERS.

James was born in Wamphray, Dumfriesshire in 1829. He married Janet BELL (born 1830 in Cummertrees, Dumfriesshire) in Kirkpatrick Fleming in 1855. James was a farm servant and over 15 years, they had 6 children, with their third born, James, being my great grandfather. James died in Westerkirk, Dumfriesshire in 1879 and Janet died in Bonnyrigg, Midlothian in 1900.

James BYERS was born in 1861 in Greenknowe, Canonbie, Dumfriesshire and was a ploughman. He married Mary Jane THOMSON (born 1859 in Gowkhall, Kirkpatrick Fleming) in Langholm in 1881. 

Mary Jane Thomson

They had 12 children between 1881 and 1903 and my grandfather, George, was third youngest. James died in 1920 at Howgillcleuch Farm in Ewes parish, Dumfriesshire with Mary Jane passing away in Longtown, Cumbria in 1935.

George BYERS was born at Rowanburnfoot, near Canonbie in 1899. He enlisted in the army (3rd Battallion, King's Own Scottish Borderers) on 19th July 1918. At that time, he was a ploughman at Effgill, Westerkirk, Dumfriesshire. Later he moved south, to County Durham, looking for work and it was at this time he met my granny, Florence May ANDERSON. They married in Houghton-Le-Spring Register Office in 1923. They had five children, the first three including my father Robert, were all born near Chester-Le-Street, with my uncles Richard and Norman both born in Gretna. So the family moved north to Scotland sometime between 1929 and 1936. Although George had worked as a ploughman and shepherd, he ended up as a foreman for the local Electricity Board in Gretna.

My grandpa, George Byers

He was a keen green bowler and won the Gretna Bowling Club Championship in 1944 and 1953, although I am unaware of when the above photo was taken. (His brother, Marius, also won the Club Championship - in 1949).

Also, George was one of the co-founders of Gretna Football Club in 1946. At the time of his death in 1960, he was a Vice President, and there was a minute's silence (or similar) at the start of the first game after his death. See undernoted newspaper clipping.

My granny, Florence May Anderson (with my cousin Allan Brady and my aunt, Jenny Brady)

Florence died in 1970, after suffering from gangrene and needing part of her leg amputated.

My dad, Robert BYERS was born on Birtley Farm, near Chester-Le-Street in 1929. He left school at 15 and worked as a van boy for the Gretna Laundry. From 1955-1962, he worked at the Victoria Laundry in Hawick, before moving to the Nairnshire Laundry in Nairn, near Inverness, as the Laundry Manager. He left there in 1970, having fallen out with the owner of the laundry and moved to Kirkcaldy, working as Manager at the Victoria Hospital Laundry for Fife Health Board. He was there until he retired in 1995. He'd met my mother, Nellie McGlasson ANDERSON, in Hawick where she worked in a dress shop. They married in 1952 in Gretna and a year later I was born. My sister and brother followed a bit later in 1959 and 1960.

My mother did not like her first name and when we moved to Nairn, she took the chance to say that her first name was "Helen". After that, most of her friends called her Helen, although her family still called her "Nellie". Nairn was certainly where my mother was the happiest in her life, as she often mentioned.

Dad died in July 2002 at the Borders General Hospital near Melrose. Mum died 10 years later in April 2012, at her home in Newcastleton.

Robert and Nellie Byers (in 1966)

So there we have it for the most part. This pretty much covers the past 260 years or so. How time flies and the generations go by!!??

This chart shows 10 generations of the BYERS family