More on the Boyd family in North America

Following on from the posting - Did Mary Boyd have other family in the USA? – posted on Sunday March the 18^th I can now report beyond any doubt that she did. I still do not know whether her parents or all of her siblings moved to North America but no doubt more will come to light with time. With the help of records found on the familysearch.org website and a posting from a descendant of one of Mary’s brothers along with other bits and pieces we now have a little more information on the family.

John Boyd and Mary Smith were married in the small village of New Abbey which is situated close to the Solway Firth a few miles from Dumfries in Scotland. I think there were at least 10 children born in various places throughout what is now Dumfries and Galloway in South West Scotland.

I have a copy of two of Mary’s siblings’ birth certificates - one for James Grierson Boyd born on December the 31^st in 1871 at Heughyard which is in the parish of Kilton - the second for Helen Boyd born on the 4^th of July (so she was destined to end up in the States!) in 1869 at Laneside Cottage, Colvend. Her father had given his occupation as a Ploughman.

It would appear that the family did not all emigrate at the same time as on 12 Mar 1894 Mary Boyd’s brother Robert married Eliza Wood Conacher in Milwaukee, Wisconsin whereas his brother James Grierson did not arrive in the U.S. until a couple of decades in to the following century. 

Robert Boyd and his wife Eliza had at least one daughter, Lillian, born  in Chicago, Illinois, in 1897. Lillian married Ralph Edgar Hepker in Cedar Rapids, Linn, Iowa and they had at least  one son, Ralph "Bud" Wilbur Hepker, who was born on February the 9^th 1925 in Cedar Rapids and who died in 2009.

The next member of the family I found was Elizabeth Grierson (transcribed as Greerson) Boyd who died in Toronto, Canada on December the 10^th 1920. She was 58 and unmarried. 

Twenty six years later, in 1946, Mary’s brother James Grierson Boyd died in Ohio at the age of 74. He had been living in Akron, Ohio for 22 years which corresponded with the amount of time he had been in the U.S. He worked as a watchman for the American Hard Rubber Company and was married to someone called Margaret.

An internet posting looking for information on the family suggests that Mary’s sisters Margaret and Helen were also in North America, Helen (Nellie) married someone with the surname Campbell  and Margaret married someone called Ross.

As to the rest of the family I have no information as yet. I am well aware that none of this information is verified by impeachable sources as yet but it's a start!