Genealogy of the Robertson, Small and related families: Hamilton, Livingston, McNaughton, McDonald, McDougall, Beveridge, Lourie, Stewart

Front matter

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Contents

Portrait of the author Frontispiece

Publisher's note S

Preface 5

Preface

In May, 1904, I wrote the records of my own immediate family, consisting of my parents and their descendants, for preservation. When this was done I thought I would try and find out something about the ancestry of the family, at least from the time of first coming to America. At that time I did not know the given name of either of my great-grandparents, William Robertson or James Small, or when they came to America, and had taken no particular interest in my ancestry. I wrote to some of my relatives to see if I could find out something about the early history of the family, and found that Miss Jennie M. Patten, of Yuma, Colorado, had collected the records of the Robertson family from the time that William Robertson came to America to about 1894. I wrote to her and she kindly sent me the records she had collected. Through her I learned the early history in this country of William Robertson, Archibald Livingston, Alexander McNaughton and their families, with some hints of an illustrious ancestry of these families in Scotland, which induced me to search the libraries. In this search I found so much of interest, which I did not know, and I presume that few of the relatives know, that I thought it would be appreciated by all members of the family if it were written up so that all could know the origin of different branches of their ancestry. I also set to work collecting the records of the Robertson and Small families from the time our ancestors came to America to date. In this I have succeeded beyond my expectations, having collected the records of almost every descendant of William Robertson and James Small.

Miss Patten's work very materially assisted me in the collection of the Robertson data, though I have personally written to almost every family in that line to bring the records down to date. On the Small side it was months before I could get any tangible clew to the descendants of James Small, but by persistence and patience I finally succeeded in getting an almost complete record of his descendants.

Believing that it would be impossible for any one, after the present generation has passed away, to collect as complete records as I have done, which has been quite difficult to do even in this generation, I felt that it was the duty of some one in this generation to put these records in shape for preservation for the benefit of future generations, especially as several lines of our ancestors in Scotland were illustrious, and have taken upon myself this task. I have pursued this work as a recreation from the arduous duties of a busy practice and feel that the pleasure I have derived from it has fully compensated me for the work performed, and I trust that my work will be appreciated by every member of our very large family.

I was surprised, and I presume that many of my relatives will be surprised, at the number of lines in our ancestry running back to kings — seven on the Robertson side and six on the Small side. The last few pages of the work will show this in a condensed form, and through the body of the work can be found references to the authorities I have examined, and anyone who will take the trouble to consult these authorities can find the proof of every statement I have made.

I would like to have given more biographical sketches of the relatives in this country. I have asked for them but, through modesty, I presume, they have not been sent. I have, however, included as many biographical sketches as I could get.

It would be a pleasure to me to believe that some member of each family, with this collection of records as a basis, would carefully record and preserve the records of their family to be handed down and kept up through succeeding generations, so that the knowledge of their ancestry may not be lost.