Monday, August 18, 2014

DESCENDANTS OF SAMUEL GREER... The complete edition...







"GREER FAMILY HISTORY  In order to understand who we are, we need to know the history of our beginnings. A good place to start is  when the Romans invaded the British Isles in the year 43 A.D. They dominated the southern portion of the  Isles but never got far into Scotland. The main reason for this failure was the warrior tribes of the north, the  Picts and Scots, who inhabited that part of the world. The Picts got their name from the Romans because of  their many tattoos. In the year 120 A.D. the Romans decided to build a defensive wall across their Empire  Britannia. The wall was named after the Roman governor Hadrian (portions of this wall are still in existence  today). The Romans crossed the wall several times to win the north but never accomplished much. After  failing to beat the barbarians over the years and along with civil strife at home they finally left the  barbarians alone after 150 A.D. In the year 410 A.D. the shrinkage of the Roman Empire forced them to  leave altogether.

 In about 830 A.D. the Scots and Picts were united under King Alpin. After his death in 843 A.D. his sons  Kenneth then Donald ruled until the year 859 A.D. Alpin also had two other sons Gregor and Achaius. Our  family comes from the Gregor line. After two generations and grandsons named Gregor, the MacGregor  Line had begun. The MacGregors lost their land first to the Campbells, then the British Lords who took over.  A rogue, MacGregor by the name of Rob Roy, fought back by promising the Lords he would burn two homes  for every home they burned. He ran an insurance protection business for cattle owners by protecting their  herds for a fee. If the owners failed to pay he took the cattle and sold them. The MacGregor's fight against  the Crown caused their name to be proscribed, which meant the name was no longer allowed or  recognized. The name was proscribed from April 1603 until 1661, but due to the continuing fight with the  Campbells, the Earl of Stair (a Campbell nobleman) again imposed a severe proscription in 1693 which was  not lifted until the year 1775 when once again the name of Macgregor was allowed to be used. 


On 17 May 1410 long before the proscription was enforced Gilbert Gregorson, the Laird of Lag took the  name Grierson. In 1653, a descendent, Henry Greer, moved to County Tyrone, Ireland and the name was  changed to Greer… Keep reading here…