James McNair (1747-1817) A Woven History

 James McNair
History Sheet
Compiled by Nancy Quillin Long
March 2016
 
Sources:
Leaves of the Family Tree by Penelope Johnson Allen, 1937.
Chalkley's Chronicles
The McNair, McNear, and McNeir genealogies by James Birtley McNair, Chicago: 1929.
Reminiscent History of the Ozark Region This Goodspeed Brothers collection of sketches was originally      published in Chicago in 1864. Southern Historical Press, Inc. reprinted the book from an 1894 edition in            1978, 1984 and 1995.
Department of Cultural Resources: North Carolina. Division of archives and History. Certificates            of payment for military service.
Carolita Quillin Jones - invaluable to me
Ova McNair Ker - invaluable to me
 

For the most part, this history sheet will be stories that others from long ago shared about our James McNair.  I could do no better than giving you these colorful descriptions of him. But before I share those stories, I will share my own genealogical search for the McNair family.  This family was the first prize that I sought.  I had a trip planned to Ireland and McNair was the only family with "Mc" in their name and I was hoping to find a family connection to Ireland.  Silly me for thinking I could find shortcuts through the world of genealogy.  Anyway, I am fortunate to live in a state capitol city where I have access to the state archives, and may I say, it is a wonderful place.  So I started there and as a rookie, I had many lessons to learn.  Needless to say, I became frustrated trying to put a square peg into a round hole, so to speak.  In my frustration, I decided to do a quick search of my maiden name (Quillin) and I stumbled over the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  My search quickly revealed a book written about the Quillin family and the family name was MACQUILLIN until they came to America in the 1660s.  And they came from Ulster, Ireland. Enough said.  I abandoned my McNair search temporarily and totally immersed myself in my Irish history through my maiden name.

 

As stated above, the McNair name was my first sought after treasure and I had all the branches filled on the tree back through my great-great grandfather.  Not only had I become a sleuth, but I had my own private investigator, my mother, Carolita Quillin Jones.  She had a love for family history and a healthy respect for the sacrifices that were made by those who had gone before us. Through her, I was able to contact quite a few older relatives and together we paid visits to them.  It was so much fun reconnecting with these people. This proved invaluable in bringing to light firsthand the information about the leaves on our tree.  Mother put together her recollections and added them to very old photos and before long, I had an amazing amount of history on the McNair family.  I loved digging for the skeletons and finding the bones....she loved adding meat to the bones.  It worked for me!

 

After my trip to Ireland and after I had pieced together my Quillin line, I returned to all the information gathered on the McNairs.  My research kept revealing clues that I might have an ancestor that fought as a Patriot in the Revolutionary War and I was very interested in joining DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution).  Little did I know what this was going to entail.  In the midst of this journey, I was called to be a juror on an attempted murder case and spent a week in close contact with the other selected jurors.  One of them, Caroline Bass, was a member of DAR and I learned about the process for honoring our Patriots.  She vowed to help me in my search.  Back in the 1990s before the click of a mouse, this type of research was not easy; however, I am proud that I learned the value of research and documentation and how NOT to rely on everything my mouse now finds.  Just because it is written, does not mean it is so. I learned I had to document a tie before I could establish the connection.

 

Once again, I came up short with the McNair name.  This James remained elusive, but I was nearly there with him.  I just couldn't find that one voucher in the national archives that would credit him for his service in the Revolution.  Here's where my research jumped track again.  In trying to reach James, his son John (Jack) McNair and our great-great grandfather's (Mack Manilus McNair) father, left behind quite a paper trail.  Being a large land owner and having fought in the War of 1812, some wonderful information came to light about him and his wife, Mary Ann Sherertz.  And there it was...a book about the Sheretz and Mary Ann's grandfather fought in the Revolutionary War.  It was a clear shot for my documentation into DAR so I took that angle.  On the Sherertz branch of the tree, I will share more about that family, but it pleases me to say that I was the very first person to honor Conrad Sherertz, Sr. as a Patriot and placing his name into the DAR records.  Learn more about this family in the Sheretz history pages