THE MEANING OF THE BYERS SURNAME

I received an email today from Ancestry, inviting me to discover the origins of my surname. Clicking on a link in the email took me to the Ancestry website, and this informed me of the following (although please bear in mind the source of this information is from the "Dictionary Of American Family Names") - 

Byers Name Meaning:  Scottish and Northern English. Topographic name for someone who lived by a cattle-shed, Middle English byre, or a habitational name with the same meaning from any of several places named with Old English "byre"; for example, Byers Green in County Durham. Amercanised spelling of the German "Bayers".

And "Where is the Byers family from"?

The above is a map of England reflecting the preponderance of the Byers surname in the Census year of 1891. The recorded number of the Byers surname in the UK in 1891 was 1,266. The county with the largest number of Byers was Cumberland with 23% of the total; next was Lancashire with 14%; London with 10% and then Northumberland with 6%.

It's a pity there is no mention of the Scottish statistics. As far as I am aware the surname "Byers" originated from Dumfriesshire and indeed almost all my Byers ancestors came from that county. The relevant parishes within that county are - Lochmaben, Kirkmichael, Wamphray, Westerkirk, Canonbie and Gretna. All these parishes are located in either the middle or east of Dumfriesshire. A map of all the county's parishes is shown below.

AN UPDATE FROM ANCESTRY ON MY DNA TEST

A note on the Ancestry website states that "Since AncestryDNA first launched, we've continued to add new regions and improve the precision of your results. DNA research is a fast-paced, cutting-edge field, and you can expect us to make more advancements as DNA science evolves".

So today I happened to recheck my DNA results on the website and found that indeed my test results had been updated. They now look like this - 

So, to summarise, my Northern England side is still dominant, but not so much as it previously was. Down to 54% from 60%.

The Scotland side is up from 21% to 43%, although the "ethnicity estimate" previously only said "Scotland" and now says "Central Scotland & Ulster, Ireland and Northeast & Central Scotland".

Gone is mention of Scandinavia (8%) and West Europe (7%), and other regions constituting the other 4%, and there is now only mention of "Sweden" with 3%.

Quite a change in these results and in my own mind, probably more realistic with the England / Scotland split. Also quite specific, with the only other country mentioned in my DNA make-up being Sweden.

As mentioned in a previous post, the average Briton is 36% British, per the Ancestry DNA database, and it would now appear that I am 97% British. This would seem to be almost as British as you could get. But I daresay the results could change again?

ESTHER BYERS AND HER JOURNEY FROM THE WEST OF THE SCOTTISH BORDERS TO THE EAST

Quite recently, I saw one of my Ancestry "hints" directing me to an "Esther Byers", my great great aunt and my great grandfather James Byers' sister. Researching another BYERS ancestor seemed a good idea, as apart from her name (and birth of an illegitimate son) I had no more information.

I decided to check out both Ancestry and the Scotlands People website to see what was held online. The initial Ancestry "hint" was basically Esther's name appearing in 20 other online family trees. Having looked at all this information, it was obvious that some researchers had just copied details direct from one another and even erroneously included information for another Esther Byers, born in the same month and the same year (this Esther being my first cousin, three times removed). Many of these other family trees also had different dates of death for Esther, so I decided to look for Esther's marriage and death certificates on the Scotlands People website.

Firstly though, I looked at Census information and in 1861, Esther (named after her grandmother, Esther Rae) was living with her mother, Janet and her half sister Fanny, aged 8, (Esther's mother Janet Bell, having given birth to Fanny in 1853 - whether James Byers was the father is not known, although obviously Fanny did take the Byers surname) and her brother, Richard, aged 2. The 1871 Census is confusing inasmuch as the Esther Byers I have found is probably my cousin, not my great great aunt. 

So, onto 1877, when, as mentioned, Esther had given birth to a son, David Byers, with no information currently known of the father. This was on 13th May (Esther's 19th birthday). Three years later, on the 26th of November, 1880, Esther married James HUSBAND, an under gamekeeper, aged 23. They were married at Grahamshill Cottages in Kirkpatrick Fleming, which James also gave as his "usual residence" at the time of the marriage. Esther's residence at this time was Fairy Row, Kirkpatrick Fleming. The marriage was witnessed by Fanny Byers and a James Howden.

From what I can find online, Grahamshill Cottages lie about 1 mile east of the village of Kirkpatrick Fleming (near Junction 21 of the A74(M)), and Fairy Row lies about 1 mile south of Kirkpatrick Fleming. Per the Ordnance Survey Name Book at that time, it states that the name of this hamlet is HOLYLEE, not Fairy Row, as can be seen from this quote "this is a long range of one storey buildings with garden attached to back. This place is sometimes called Fairy Row, which is not proper. Colonel Graham states that there was an encampment of monks near this place - but the site cannot be pointed out - hence the name Holylee".

Per the 1881 Census, Esther and her husband, James were living with James' parents and three siblings in Old Engine (?), Lasswade, Midlothian. Between 1882 and 1888, Esther and James had three children, Archibald, Frances and Christina and by 1891, the family were living at 16 Market Place, Coldstream, Berwickshire. They certainly moved about, presumably with James' job as gamekeeper, as Archibald was born in Lasswade, Frances in Cockpen, Midlothian and Christina in Coldstream.

By 1901, James was a coal miner, and the family, now with James' mother, aged 86, lived at Waterside Cottage, Stobhill, Borthwick Parish, not far from Gorebridge. Ten years later, Esther and James were still at the same address.

Esther died on the 1st of March, 1928 (of mitral stenosis (heart disease)) at Waterside Cottage, Gorebridge, with Esther's husband present at the time of her death. So Esther and family had lived in the same cottage for the best part of 30 years. And she had outlived her brother, James, my great grandfather, by 8 years.