A review of:

Sacred to the Memory of the Blairs

By T. W. "Bill" Blair Jr.

By their very nature, Family History books are filled with names, dates, and place names. Usually they make for very boring reading unless you are looking for some fact that will help to complete your family tree. We have attempted to make Sacred to the Memory of the Blairs more interesting by providing biographies of many of our ancestors. We hope to give future generations of Blairs an insight into their heritage.

Through these pages you will be able to follow William Blair and his descendants. We believe that William migrated from Ireland to America (South Carolina) in the late 1700’s. He likely was looking freedom and opportunity, the same as many American immigrants. It is doubtful that he envisioned he would have over 1,000 descendants and that their history would be the history of America.

We, Thomas William Blair Sr. and Thomas William Blair Jr., have focused on our Blair lineage beginning with William in Newberry, SC and moving into Southeast Alabama. But we did not limit our book to a single line. Sacred to the Memory of the Blairs covers 11 generations of Blairs. We have included as many branches of the family tree as possible.

The idea for this book was born in the 1960’s. T.W. Blair Sr. began researching our family tree and found that our Blairs were instrumental in the growth of our nation. Many local history books did not contain references to our ancestors and T.W. could not understand why. When he asked the author of one such book why our relatives were not included, she replied, “History is His-Story. Authors include the information they want to include. You should write your own book.”

Over 40 years later, Sacred to the Memory of the Blairs, has been published. Over these years, hundreds of thousands of miles have been driven searching for an elusive bit of information that would help to link one generation to the next. Musty storage rooms in the basements of courthouses have been explored. Dozens of libraries have been inspected. Hundreds of cemeteries have been examined. And our eyesight has diminished staring at faded records prepared by people with questionable handwriting skills. But every step of the way, new insights were gained which helped us to better understand our heritage.

Sacred to the Memory of the Blairs is 383 pages long, including the index. There are over 1000 descendants (and spouses) of William Blair listed. There are over 100 photos and images. Three Appendixes are also included. One covers the known Early Blair history. Our line goes back to the Blair of Blair from about 1205 in Scotland. The second appendix covers some information on the Blair DNA project, which is how we know the origination of our Blair line. The third Appendix includes a couple of stories on Blairs that we do not know if or how we are linked, but the stories were so intriguing they had to be included.

From the birth of our nation until now, the Blair family history and American history are intertwined. By following one generation to the next, you can also see America’s history. Hopefully the reader will gain a new appreciation of the struggles, heartaches, and successes of the Blairs. None of us should be reduced to a few lines of facts on paper or carved into a headstone. This book was written to keep the memory of our Blairs alive for us and future generations.