Hello from the Blue Mountains of Australia!

[Limehouse]

Greetings one and all!

Have been a reader of this forum for a few years now and recently decided to finally join up - for some reason I had always thought I already had registered whenever I visited - fixed now!

Allow me to bore you with my own heritage story ... you might want to put kettle on at this point ...

My Scots ancestor bore the name James Adam, he migrated to Australia from London in the 1850's lured by the Gold Rush and ended up being one of the original settlers and pioneers of the Tenterfield region of NSW. My forum name Limehouse is taken for the area of London where my Adam ancestors were living. The Limehouse district of London was a very concentrated area with a majority of Scots and Irish inhabitants, right by the docks and ship yards no less.

Sadly my research into James Adam has not yet revealed his Scottish regional home since the earliest record I have for him before he sailed for Australia was the 1841 Census which only states Scotland as his place of birth in 1796 and that he was a Baker by trade. Interestingly enough, his wife was a Coningham which is an alternative spelling for Cunningham and due to the ethnic make up of Limehouse at that time I tentatively suspect that she was a Scot also as her family were in the Baking trade as well. I feel fairly confident that I could add the Cunningham Tartan to my Kilt attire at some point down the line.

Not knowing ones regional origins can be frustrating and with what we know about the seemingly recent association of Sept names with various Clans I decided to try another method of confirmation that has some statistical weight behind it. The Adam name is said to be a Sept of the House of Gordon or Clan Gordon if you will and I have read quite a bit about the origins of the Adam surname and it does seem very likely that the Adam name is indeed very closely associated with Gordon since the very first Gordons had Adam as their first names and it is believed that the Adam surname derives from this time and lineage.

I have had no end of encouragement from the local representative of The House of Gordon regarding the genuine nature of the Adam/Gordon connection but I decided to take things a little further, not knowing my families regional origins by way of records. I decided to use the world surname profiler which uses statistical information to identify the most concentrated geographical locations of surnames. As it turns out the name Adam is overwhelmingly associated with Aberdeenshire and we know the Gordons are also associated with the Aberdeen district as well so this gave me a lot more confidence in the notional idea that Adam is indeed a Sept of the Gordons and is quite likely a genuine association historically - not just a random fancy of the Victorian romance revival.

When it came to choosing a family Tartan I searched and found a Tartan for Adam and had a premium 8 yard 16oz weave produced by D.C Dalgliesh who I am sure is already well known to these boards already. Here is the Adam Tartan that I wear ...



I have yet to own any of the Gordon Tartan but I am planning on an Aberdeen District Tartan perhaps before I opt for the Gordon and even so a Cunningham kilt perhaps as well. Thanks for listening and I look forward to learning more still from the members here.

Best, Limehouse.

[Father Bill]

Welcome to the "Great Rabble!"

[Richrail]

from Reno, Nevada USA

[Jock Scot]

Welcome, from Inverness-shire.

[ASinclair]

Hello, Limehouse!

[Macman]

Limehouse, welcome to XMTS from Victoria, B.C., Canada!

[David]

Welcome Limehouse. I have some search credits left on the ScotlandsPeople.gov website, so just dd a quick check. 8 James Adams' (hope thats the correct place for the ') were born in Scotland in 1796. Two in Perthshire, 2 Glasgow, 1 each in Invernesshire, Edinburgh, Renfrew and Aberdeen. If you let me know his fathers christian name, or better still his mothers maiden name, I'll see if I can find him.

[dougle]

Hi welcome from Worcestershire England

[Limehouse]

Welcome Limehouse. I have some search credits left on the ScotlandsPeople.gov website, so just dd a quick check. 8 James Adams' (hope thats the correct place for the ') were born in Scotland in 1796. Two in Perthshire, 2 Glasgow, 1 each in Invernesshire, Edinburgh, Renfrew and Aberdeen. If you let me know his fathers christian name, or better still his mothers maiden name, I'll see if I can find him.

Cheers David!

Thanks for the very kind offer to help mate, my problem has been that I have no details of James Adam' parents names as the 1841 census has scant information. From the records I have, he was married at the age of 17 in London to Elizabeth Coningham (Wits: Benj Taylor & Thomas Conningham). From the balance of information I would assume that Aberdeen was the region to search - I was also thinking that I might perhaps be able to find a trade (Baker) connection between an Adam Snr and James to firm up the family ties. It has been a dead end due to the lack of parental data alas.

I have gotten very used to sleuthing in Genealogy and very often the first born children carry the names of the parents - I know James' eldest brother was David so it may be possible that a David Adam is the most sensible clue to James' fathers christian name.

[Spartan Tartan]

from Rhode Island