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?

If this is your first time here, please take the time to read all of this page. It has lots of helpful information for you. It will be worth your time.

If you’re new to researching your Stewart ancestors, and are looking for helpful advice on figuring out which clan your Stewart ancestors might belong to, refer to our article Which Clan Do My Stewarts Belong To?

Help Begins Here

We frequently get requests for information from new researchers who have discovered a Stewart ancestor in their tree and they’re not sure how to figure out where their ancestor came from.

Many researchers end up on our website because we have one of the most comprehensive clan databases and genealogy websites on the internet. The reason that our database is so extensive is simply because we were blessed with a unique resource that no other clan has: Stewarts of the South, a comprehensive inventory/census of every family in our clan in the early 1800s, including a hundred years of their ancestries. This has allowed us to thoroughly research an era of our clan’s history for which records normally don’t exist. For that same reason, we find new researchers sometimes mistakenly claim a connection to our clan because they have an ancestor with a name, date, and location that resembles someone in our database.

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.

This page is intended to help you figure out if your Stewarts are connected to ours or if they connect somewhere else.

Professional Research Services Available:

We do have professional researchers associated with our group who are available for hire if you require professional assistance with your research:

Gordon MacGregor

Gordon MacGregor is one of Scotland’s premier full-time professional genealogists with over 30 years of professional research experience. He is the author of The Landed Families of Strathearn and the encyclopedic Red Book of Scotland. He regularly does commissioned research before the Lord Lyon Court.

Jared Olar

Jared Olar oversees the local history collection at the Pekin Public Library in Pekin, Illinois, USA. Jared is a descendant of the Stewarts of Balquhidder. He has over 20 years experience in genealogy research.

The Purpose of this Website

This website (along with our Facebook group and Discussion Forum) is intended for research related to the Stewarts of Balquhidder and their descendants. Unfortunately, we do not have the resources to expand this site to cover other Stewart clans as well.

We value working with representatives of other Stewart clans or other local Balquhidder clans for the purpose of sharing information and helping each other. And if any other clan wanted to build a web resource like this, we would be pleased to consult.

Volunteer Limitations

Because we are comprised entirely of volunteers, our time availability to assist people with research into other Stewart clans is very limited. Some of our volunteers have more time available than others to assist with research outside of the Stewarts of Balquhidder.

Other Stewart/Stuart/Steuart Families and Clans

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

Hundreds. Thousands. Who knows?

For Clan Stewart of Balquhidder alone, we have 4 principal families, each of which has between 6-12 cadet branches, each of which has between 3-10 sub-lines, each of which produced up to a dozen distinct households by the early 1800s. This author’s own personal “distinct household” from the early 1800s has produced over 10,000 descendants and that number grows exponentially with each additional generation. 

The same or similar would be true for Clan Stewart of Appin and Clan Stewart of Atholl. And that’s just the three main Highland clans/families.

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

By doing the hard work of genealogical research. Unfortunately, there is no shortcut to researching your ancestors one generation at a time. DNA research may help narrow your research a bit, 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.

Allan Stuart of Clan Stewart – Roots and Branches at WikiTree has produced the following comprehensive list of most (not all) major Stewart branches whose ancestry is known.

Most (not all) Known Stewart Families and Clans

Clan Stewart - Roots and Branches
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:

Perthshire – Balquhidder, Comrie, Callander, Kilmadock, Kincardine-by-Doune, Port of Menteith, Aberfoyle, Dunblane. (see map below)

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” does not refer to any form of land ownership or protectorate. It just means that these are the areas where most of our Stewarts lived prior to the mass emigrations of the 18th and 19th centuries. Approximately 80-90% of the Stewarts living in the green areas are descendants of one of the main branches of the Stewarts of Balquhidder. There were descendants of the Stewarts of Balquhidder who lived outside the green areas, but they were in very small quantities, and were living in areas dominated by other Stewart families. It means that if you’ve traced your Stewart ancestor back to a location in one of the green areas then there is a very high likelihood they descend from the Stewarts of Balquhidder and that we likely have helpful information for you.

Clan territory boundaries were not rigid. Pre-1800, most people tended to live and die within walking distance of where they were born, but not exclusively. There are many reasons why some individuals “left home” and moved elsewhere in Scotland or further abroad.

Similarly, if, say, your Stewarts came from northeastern Perthshire, for example, then there’s an 80-90% chance they’re more likely related to the Stewarts of Atholl. Or, if your Stewarts came from northern Argyllshire, then there’s a 90% chance they belong to the Stewarts of Appin.

It means that your research efforts are best spent looking first into the history of the dominant Stewart families in the area where your ancestor lived. Chances are better that they’re more likely related to a local clan rather than a distant one.

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 Discussion Forum

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.

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.