by

Kenneth Trist Urquhart of Urquhart

This is the first volume in a series which Robert Jeffrey Urquhart, Bard of Clan Urquhart, plans to publish on various Urquhart family lines. It comes after years of collecting, organizing, and researching Urquhart genealogical material. The Bard's Urquhart genealogical data base is the finest in the world with over 14,800 names. It contains material for similar volumes on many different Urquhart lines. William Stronach Urquhart's line was chosen to be the first presented in the series because the Bard had the opportunity to gather together in one volume a record of every descendant of an Urquhart who had emigrated from Scotland to the United States. He also had the very capable assistance of one of those descendants who brought great dedication and drive to the project, Susan Beth Urquhart, great granddaughter of William Stronach Urquhart. With Susan's encouragement and help, Robert Jeffrey Urquhart devoted himself to the difficult task of getting the names and genealogical data of all the descendants of William Stronach Urquhart. After much effort, he succeeded in getting pertinent information on every one of them as well as an impressive number of photographs of most of them. In addition, he was able to trace William Stronach Urquhart's ancestral lines in Scotland back several generations; and to locate original letters and other historical documents, old photographs, and valuable biographical data. He brought all this material together and published it in the present volume. Carefully researched, well organized, and attractively presented, it provides a complete and permanent record of one Urquhart family in North America.

This book about the William Stronach Urquhart Family is valuable, not only because it records all the different members of the family and shows how they are related to each other; but because it presents, through text and illustrations, the story of this North American branch of the Urquhart Family, recording how its founder left Scotland in the late Nineteenth Century; established himself in the United States; became a successful architect and raised a family; and how his descendants have expanded and prospered down to the present day. The publication of this book makes the story of this family known for the first time. It is the account of a family in which all its members can take justifiable pride; and it will serve as a vehicle whereby the members of that family will be drawn closer together. It will also serve the important purpose of giving them and their descendants a better idea of who they are as a family. The book will give them a context in which to develop their own lives; and the lives of the families they create.

It is impossible to over emphasize the importance of the Bard of a Clan in collecting, organizing, and preserving family genealogical records. Robert Jeffrey Urquhart was commissioned Bard of Clan Urquhart by the Chief in 1980. Since then he has worked tirelessly and has expended large amounts of his own personal money in order to create an Urquhart Family data base which is the world's largest collection of Urquhart genealogical material. Thanks to the Bard, the Urquharts are second to none when it comes to the Clan's collection of genealogical records. With the publication of this volume, he is beginning the process of making the data which he has collected available in book and CD format. After this, he will publish other volumes on various Urquhart lines in North America, Europe, and elsewhere in the world. In order to do this, he depends upon many people to provide him with information so that he can present as complete a picture as possible. His collecting, organizing, and preserving of historical and genealogical records is ongoing and never ends. Every Urquhart and Urquhart descendant is, therefore, encouraged to collect information about his or her immediate family; and to get in touch with the Bard in order to give him this information so that it can be added to the Urquhart Family Data Base. One cannot stress too much how important this is to the Clan and to the individual family involved. The descendants of those who preserve family records in this way will certainly be very grateful to them in years to come when others are trying desperately to establish who they are; and how they are related to other members of Clan Urquhart.

The Chief of the Clan commends the Bard on the publication of volume 1 of URQUHARTS IN NORTH AMERICA: THE DESCENDANTS AND ANCESTORS OF WILLIAM STRONACH URQUHART. He looks forward to the publication of subsequent volumes in the series; and he asks all clansmen and clanswomen to take an active part in making this important project a success by providing information to the Bard before publication; and once publication has taken place, by purchasing copies of these Urquhart family histories and by encouraging others to purchase copies.

The Chief expresses his appreciation and that of the Clan to Robert Jeffrey Urquhart, Bard of Clan Urquhart, for the many valuable services which he has rendered to the Clan. Outstanding among these are his work with Urquhart genealogical records and his creation and maintenance of the Official Clan Urquhart Website. With the publication of this first volume in the Urquhart family history series, The Bard begins another very important service to his Clan which is greatly appreciated by this generation of Urquharts and which will be appreciated even more by subsequent generations.

Kenneth Urquhart of Urquhart

Chief of Clan Urquhart