Help Me Find My Stewarts

A Guide to Help You Figure Out If Your Stewart Ancestors Belong to the Stewarts of Balquhidder clan.
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Do You Need Help Finding Your Stewart Ancestors?

Have you discovered a Stewart ancestor in your family tree and you’re not sure where your ancestor came from? This page is intended to help you figure out if your Stewart ancestors are connected to the Stewarts of Balquhidder or a different clan. If your Stewart ancestor belongs to the Stewarts of Balquhidder then we want to hear from you! If not, then we want to help point you in the right direction where you can find the right resources for your research.

The Purpose of this Website

This website (along with our Facebook group) is intended for research related to the Stewarts of Balquhidder and their descendants. As a volunteer organization, unfortunately, we do not have the resources to assist with research beyond the Stewarts of Balquhidder.

Other Stewart/Stuart/Steuart Families and Clans

How many different Stewart families/clans were there in Scotland?

There are thousands of different Stewart families. For Clan Stewart of Balquhidder alone, we have 4 principal families each of which has between 6-12 cadet branches. Each of those branches has between 3-10 sub-lines. Each of those lines produced up to a dozen distinct households by the early 1800s. The same or similar would be true for Clan Stewart of Appin and Clan Stewart of Atholl. And that’s just three of the major Highland clans/families.

How do I begin to figure out which Stewart family my ancestor may have belonged to?

The only way to figure out which Stewart family your ancestor belonged to is to start with what you know and carefully research back one generation at a time. Unfortunately, there is no shortcut to genealogical research. DNA research may help narrow your research, but even with all the breakthroughs in Stewart DNA research in the past decade it’s still not refined enough to tell you exactly which family your Stewart ancestors belonged to. (See also: Stewarts of Balquhidder DNA.)

Allan Stuart of Clan Stewart – Roots and Branches at WikiTree has produced the following comprehensive list of nearly 500 Stewart families:

Most (not all) Known Stewart Families and Clans

Clan Stewart - Roots and Branches

You may also want to read our article Which Clan Do My Stewarts Belong To?

Map of highland Stewart clan territories.

The Stewarts of Balquhidder Clan Territory

The Stewarts of Balquhidder historical clan territory is marked in green on the accompanying maps. If your Stewart ancestor came from within the green areas then there’s an 80-90% chance that they’re one of ours. And, if they aren’t one of ours, then we probably know where they came from.

Our Stewarts were known to reside primarily in the following parishes:

    • In Perthshire: Balquhidder, Comrie, Callander, Kilmadock, Kincardine-by-Doune, Port of Menteith, Aberfoyle, Dunblane. (see map below)
    • In Stirlingshire: Stirling, St. Ninnians, Gargunnock, Kippen, Balfron, Drymen, Buchanan, Logie, Campsie. (see map below)

Perthshire Parish Map of Balquhidder Stewarts (3)

Stirling Parishes with Balquhidder Stewarts (2)

Understanding Clan Territory Boundaries

“Clan territory” doesn’t imply land ownership but refers to areas where specific Stewart families lived before the mass emigrations of the 18th and 19th centuries. In the green areas of the maps above, 80-90% of the Stewarts likely descend from the Stewarts of Balquhidder and 10-20% descend from other Stewart clans. While some Balquhidder Stewarts lived outside these areas, they were few and often in regions dominated by other Stewart families. If your Stewart ancestors came from a green area, there’s a strong likelihood they’re connected to the Balquhidder lineage, and our clan records may provide helpful information.

Clan boundaries were not rigid. Before 1800, most people lived near their birthplace, though some moved for various reasons. If your Stewarts came from northeastern Perthshire, they are likely connected to the Stewarts of Atholl, while those from northern Argyllshire are probably linked to the Stewarts of Appin. For genealogy research, it’s best to focus your work on the dominant Stewart family in your ancestors’ area rather than distant clans, as connections are more likely to be local.

Start your search here…

 

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How did you find your Stewart ancestor?

Do you have any document (paper or digital) evidence of your Stewart ancestor?
(Such as: birth/marriage/death record, census record, old family tree, etc.)

OR

Did you find your Stewart ancestor from a “hint” on Ancestry, WikiTree, FamilySearch, FindMyPast or other online services that host other member’s family trees?
Many of those “hints” point to amateur researchers’ trees that are full of erroneous assumptions. Do not rely on them.

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DOCUMENT EVIDENCE

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ANCESTRY, ETC.?

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Was your ancestor born in Scotland?

Great! You have a document (whether hard copy or digital) that verifies your ancestor was a real person and is the confirmed parent of the child you believe they are.

Or, at the very least, you’ve got enough evidence that this relationship is probably correct and it’s worth looking for more supporting evidence.

Your next question is: was this ancestor born in Scotland?

Hints are not reliable.

When you click on a “hint” on Ancestry (or other similar online sites like FamilySearch, FindMyPast or WikiTree), the first thing they usually show you is a list of other member’s trees. That “hint” only means that another amateur researcher thinks that could be your ancestor. You have no way of knowing how reliable their tree is unless you dig for more information.

Is it your ancestor? Or is it somebody else’s unrelated ancestor whose name and dates just happen to match yours? There were a LOT of John Stewarts in Perthshire in the 1700s!

Before you can rely on someone else’s tree you need to verify their sources. If they aren’t listed then you need to send them a message and ask. If you can’t verify their sources then you should consider their tree as unreliable and you should not import their data into your tree. You should ignore it and resume searching for your correct ancestor. 

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In SCOTLAND

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Outside Scotland

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Was your ancestor born in southwest Perthshire or western Stirlingshire?

You’re getting closer! Now, check the map above for our known clan territory. Did your Stewart ancestor reside in one of the green areas on those maps?

Try to get your line back to Scotland

The majority of resources on this site are focussed on the descendants of the Stewarts of Balquhidder in Scotland prior to 1900.

We do have some information on some emigrant lines where we have volunteer researchers who belong to those families, such as:

  • The Stewarts of Ledcreich in North Carolina, USA
  • The Stewarts of Dalveich in Ontario, Canada
  • The Stewarts of Gartnafuaran in Londonderry
  • The Stewarts in Bracklinn in Australia

to name just a few.

It’s worth your while to search our site just in case we have your family, but you may have to do some more work on your own to get your line back to Scotland before we can help you determine if your Stewart ancestor belongs to our clan.

If your ancestor came from Northern Ireland, check our search resources below for Exceptional Cases: Northern Ireland

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In the green

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Not in the green

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We want to hear from you!

If your ancestor lived in one of the green areas of the maps above then there is an 80-90% chance that you are descended from the Stewarts of Balquhidder.

If your ancestor was one of the 10-20% living in our territory but not related to us, then there is a good chance we have information on your family. We research all Stewart families living in the green areas of the maps.

Check our search resources below

  1. Did your ancestor come from elsewhere in the Highlands? Check our search resources below for Other Highland Stewart Clans.
  2. There are some known small branches of the Stewarts of Balquhidder who resided in territory dominated by either the Stewarts of Atholl or the Stewarts of Appin. Check our search resources below for Exceptional Cases: Balquhidder Stewarts Living Elsewhere in Scotland
  3. Did your ancestor come from Glasgow? Glasgow is a special exceptional case. It was a burgeoning industrial city in the late 1700s through the 1800s. It drew migrants from all over Scotland. Many of our Stewart branches had descendants who moved to Glasgow in search of work. Check our search resources below for Exceptional Cases: Glasgow
  4. Did your ancestor come from the Lowlands? If so, then check our search resources below for Lowland Stewart Families. 
  5. It’s worth your while to search our site just in case we have your family, but you may have to do some more work on your own to narrow down where your ancestor came from in Scotland before we can help you determine if your Stewart ancestor belongs to our clan.

Join Our Online Facebook Group

You do NOT need to be a confirmed descendant of the Stewarts of Balquhidder in order to join our group. We welcome anyone with an interest in the history of our clan, whether or not you are a descendant.