JOHN DEWAR STEWART DUFFUS

JOHN DEWAR STEWART DUFFUS

JOHN DEWAR STEWART DUFFUS
167 WATKINS AVE.
MIDDLETOWN, NY 10940

August 7, 1995

J. David Duffus, Jr.
DUFFUS & ASSOCIATES
110 Arlington Boulevard
Greenville, N. C., 27835-5026

Dear Mr. Duffus:

Both my brother, Robert Neaves Duffus, Jr. and I wish to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of July 1st. We are quite interested in your efforts to trace back the family name.

A few years ago I sent for a copy of the Book of Duffuses just to see what the extent of the Duffus name was. I was surprised at the number of than listed, but have never contacted any of them, with the exception of my own relatives. I also have picked up two books on the Clans of Scotland in order to trace back any information as to our origin. The only information I could verify with the my relatives in Scotland was that we were of Clan Sutherland. I have also read the inference to "darkwater" in another history of the Duffus name that I purchased from the same Company that printed the listing of the Duffus names worldwide.

One of our cousins in Scotland spent considerable time trying to compile a family tree for our side of the family and had sane success getting data from older family members and he also rented computer time at a branch of the Mormon Church in Dundee and found additional information taking us back to the birth of my great great grandfather, John Duffus, born in 1780. Beyond that date there was nothing further available.

During one of our visits to Scotland, we drove up to Duffus and had a look around the village and Duffus Castle. Then we proceeded to Duffus Kirk, which is just outside the parish. We did locate the present pastor, who didn’t have too much to otter beyond telling us that the original church was burned to the ground along with all the Church records of births and. deaths etc. during the strife which plagued Scotland for hundreds of years. The only records remaining were very recent and of no help to us.

Another roadblock was the fact that most of the records kept in earlier days were recorded by clerks and registrars, who were not necessarily fully literate and quite often entered names and places by how they sounded rather than by the actual spelling. This added more complications to the search.

I would like to get a copy of the Cordon Duffus article, if any are available and, of course, I '11 be very much interested in the results of your research efforts.

Listed below is our tracing of my family line from 1780 to the present:

John Duffus - My great great grandfather. Born 1780. No middle name or initial found. Married in Edinburgh to Mary Henderson. Had seven children, one of whom was John. No middle name or initial listed. No place of residence or date of death listed.

John Duffus - Born 3-7-1808 Died 1-29-1886 Great grandfather. Married Catherine Beveridge and relocated to Dundee. Had three children, one of whom was named Henry Beveridge Duffus.

Henry Beveridge Duffus - Born 12-4-1843 Died 5-17-1910. Grandfather. Was married twice with a total of 17 children, one of whom was named Robert Neaves Duffus.

Robert Neaves Duffus - Born 8-20-1890 Died 7-23-75 Married Henrietta Stewart 7-20-1917 in Dundee. These were my parents. Two children. Robert Neaves Duffus, Jr. and John Dewar Stewart Duffus.

John Dewar Stewart Duffus - Born in Dundee 2-8-1920.emigrated to USA in 1923 with parents and brother. Married Muriel Dayton Roosa 8-5-1951. Had one son named John Stewart Duffus, Jr.

John Stewart Duffus, Jr. Born 8-10-1953 in Middletown, N.Y. Married Linda M. Silling 9-17-1988. One child - John Stewart Duffus III born 9-1-1992.

I hope this will be of some help to you on your project and hope to hear more from you in the future as to your progress.

Sincerely,

John S. Duffus

JOHN DEWAR STEWART DUFFUS
167 WATKINS AVENUE
MIDDLETOWN, N. Y. 10940

August 28, 1995

Dear Mr. Duffus:

This is to acknowledge your letter of August 1, 1995 to my brother Robert, who brought it over to me for my information. Since my last letter to you, I have found two other bits of information in my records that may be of interest to you in your project, so I will answer for both of us.

Christina's information is correct in that we were both born in Dundee and emigrated to the States in 1923. Brother Bob was five years old at the time and I was three so our recollections of our home land are very dim.

Our cousin Harry Duffus did indeed spend many hours tracing back our family history as I outlined in my previous letter. His efforts resulted in a chart that is 45 inches wide and 10 inches high, all done by hand. The family information I sent you is the part relating to our decendancy only.

The last information we received concerned his location of a John Duffus, born around 1780 and had a son also named John who was born March 7, 1808 in Edinburgh, married to Catherine Beveridge and moved to Dundee. He went into business there as a Master Draper and Clothier. He died on January 29, 1886. I noticed in your enclosed article about Passaic, N. J. that John H. Duffus was in a similar business in Dundee, but the dates of birth are different, but most interesting.

One other bit of information for your research efforts:

My wife and I, in our younger days, liked to vacation in Myrtle Beach, S. C. and, on occasion, drove down to Charleston to see the sights of this beautiful, old city.

On one visit we came across a church on Meeting Street with a sign in front saying "Scots Kirk". The doors were open so we went in and looked around and found a plaque on the rear wall dedicated to the founders of the church. Much to our amazement the name of John Duffus appeared as a member of the group who founded it. We took the enclosed pictures and picked up the enclosed brochure as a souvenir.

We tried to locate someone in the church to talk with about the church records but could find no one to help us. Then we spent some time in the church cemetery trying to find a stone or marker with the Duffus name on it but found nothing. Many of them were unreadable due to their age and weatherbeaten condition so I believe it is possible there is a Duffus plot somewhere in the grave yard. Unfortunately we have never returned to Charleston for another visit nor did we make the effort to write to the Church to find out if there were any records available since the church had been through earthquakes, tornados and a fire. I hope you find the enclosed information of interest.

At the present time we are considering another trip to Scotland in the summer of 1996, health and circumstances permitting. It is also my fond hope that my son and his son can someday visit the land of their ancestors and carry on our proud Scottish heritage.

Thanks again for your letter and the information it contained and we wish you continued success in your project. We would greatly appreciate any updates you would care to send.

Sincerely,

John Dewar Stewart Duffus

Design by David Duffus