Brian Spurr

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Brian Spurr's Ancestry By Brian Spurr on Thursday, 17 November 2011 at 22:25 Brian Spurr's Ancestry Robert Spurr born about 1611 England Lt.Col. Robert Spurr, 21 Feb 1661, Dorchester, Massachusetts, USA Thomas Spurr, 12 May 1687, Stoughton, Massachusetts, USA Michael Spurr, 1 Apr 1723, Stoughton, Massachusetts, USA Thomas Spurr, 12 Sep 1763, Round Hill, Nova Scotia, Canada Robert Spurr, 23 Jun 1792, Round Hill, Nova Scotia, Canada Robert James Spurr, 26 Oct 1824, Round Hill, Nova Scotia, Canada William Spurr, 28 Oct 1853, Round Hill, Nova Scotia, Canada Algernon de Blois Spurr, 20 Jan 1877, Round Hill, Nova Scotia, Canada (my grandfather) Algernon de Blois Spurr, 21 May 1920, Salisbury, Mashonaland, Rhodesia (my father) Brian Peter de Blois Spurr, 20 Feb 1949, Bulawayo, Matabeleland, Rhodesia (me!) Susan Caroline Spurr, 10 Jul 1979, Durban, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa (my daughter) Michael Peter Spurr, 28 Aug 1984, Durban, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa (my son) Matthew Owen Carruthers, 3 Apr 2010, Durban, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa (my grandson) Ava Reece Carruthers, 11 Jul 2012, Durban, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa (my granddaughter)

I intend to devote a section to the people that have helped me over the years. My interest in Family History began when I had to send for a copy of my grandfather Algernon de Blois Spurr's birth certificate for a passport application. When it arrived (very speedily) it got me thinking about my grandfather and what he had said about a volcano in Alaska named after a member of the family. It is not a mountain featured in many Atlases but I finally found Mount Spurr shown on the other side of the Cook Inlet to Anchorage. It is a mountain 3374 metres high which erupted three times in 1992 after a 37 year dormancy.

Well the next step was how to prove his claim. I decided on a whim to write to "the largest newspaper, Anchorage, Alaska". After some time I received a clipping from a column entitled "Tell it to Bud" where my letter had been printed. There was some background on the mountain and it was mentioned that it had been named after a geologist by the name of Josiah Edward Spurr who had surveyed the area at the turn of the century. Underneath the letter was printed the name of an Anchorage based genealogist by the name of Thera Bagley. Well this was an extremely lucky break as she was able to confirm extensive work on the Spurr family history and was also able to confirm my link to Josiah Edward Spurr. He turned out to be my third cousin, three generations removed. Since then I have corresponded with his son Stephen Hopkins Spurr (now deceased). I also managed to meet his granddaughter Patricia Rucker "Pat" Spurr (daughter of Josiah's son William Alfred Spurr), when I was in San Francisco in July 1997.

From there I was provided a lot of information by Wayne Walker of Ottawa who in turn told me about Vernon Morse Spurr who was writing a genealogy on the Spurr family. Vernon died recently after a battle against cancer. He was a remarkable man and all of the Spurr's of my line owe him a huge debt of grattitude. His painstaking research and detailed and accurate manuscripts are a history he leaves to all of us. Vernon has been very generous to me over the years sharing a lot of information and sending me many expensive packages containing Spurr family information. Most interesting were some letters he sent me that my grandfather had sent to him, as they contained a lot of his history I imagined had been lost forever. Vernon's three volume history mentioned on the other page is very comprehensive and a must to have if you are a family member. John Wheelock Spurr did 25 years of research and after his death the work was taken over by Veron who worked hard to ensure that the genealogy was published.

Another book provided a lot of information "Spurr Genealogy" by Evelyn Davis Fincher. Evelyn wrote on the United States branch of the family and Vernon and John did the Canadian branch.

I also used information from the "History of the County of Annapolis" by W.A. Calnek and A.W Savary which has a section on the early Spurr family there. A note of caution though, some of the information is not correct. I also have some family histories of various Spurr families in several countries.

So in many ways I am one of the lucky ones having it all done for me. However wanting to do some research of my own I decided to try and track down every Spurr record that I could lay my hands on. Like Vernon I do not want to think of the countless hours I have spent looking up data and corresponding with so many wonderful people. So what I have now I think is the largest Spurr database that there is, as of December 2015 there are 32385 individuals recorded, Spurr individuals and their relatives. It is not all my work by any means. Many people around the world have willingly contributed information. With the advent of computers and the internet this work has been made easier but the volume of information has increased dramatically.

Any SPURR anywhere in the world is welcome to contact me with some details of their family. I undertake to search my database for you.

Sources

• First-hand information. Entered by Brian Spurr at registration.