A review of:
The Family of James Blair and Nancy Day
By Dr. Roger D. Grider
(This Book is out of Print)
This book, The Family of James Blair and Nancy Day, by Roger D. Grider, is no longer available for purchase, but seeking a used or library copy would be well worth your while. Dr. Grider, a descendant, has spent many years studying his heritage and this massive volume is evidence of his meticulous and thorough research. This will be the landmark body of work in this line for all the generations coming after us.
The author traces for three generations the descendants of James I and (Mary Colbert?) Blair who settled in Rowan (later Burke) County, North Carolina as part of the epic Scotch-Irish migration before the Revolutionary War.
Paralleling this, he examines the Day family and especially those Days who moved into Rowan County in the latter part of the 1700's. The Days and the Blairs were closely allied for many generations as neighbors, friends and fellow traverers and they intermarried to a great extent.
Following these three generations he contentrates on James IV and Nancy (Day) Blair who moved in the early 1800s from Burke County to Kentucky, first to Cumberland County, then to southeast Adair County which later became part of Russell County. There they settled along Reynolds Creek. James IV is the likely son of the (James?) Blair (son of Colbert I and Sarah [Morgan]), who was killed in the battle of King's Mountain fighting for the British crown.
As this descendancy continues, the primary allied families are enumerated, Mayberry, Womack, Demoss, Hudson, Rippetoe, Grider, Baldock, Smith, Sloan, Jennings, and Antle being prominent.
James IV was born about 1780/1781 In Buake County, and Nancy was born about the same time. He died in 1 870 in Russell County Kentucky, preceded in death by Nancy. Their descendants still are a strong presence in that area.
Separate chapters examine the progeny of each of their thirteen children: James Jr., Delilah, John Richardson, Margaret, Burton, Morgan, Larkin, Nancy, Mary, Elizabeth, William, Thomas Leftridge, and Emily.
A massive compilation, with thousands of this couple's descendants, the book is nevertheless well organized and easy to navigate. Researchers wll have no difficulty findng an individual or a branch of these descendants and tracing their lineage.
Dr. Grider also gives us an interesting and informative chapter of history which takes us from the Scottish Lowlands to Northern Ireland, to the New Country, down through Lower Creek in old Burke County, and on to the Cumberland Foothills of Kentucky.
Published in 8.5 X 11" format with a laminated soft cover by Chicago Spectrum Press, this 491-page volume includes many notes, ancestral charts, cemetery surveys, historical records, 168 photographs, 13 maps, and a six-generation name index of 47 pages.
