Seeking Kerr ancestors in Ireland and Scotland
We are seeking the ancestors and descendants of Abraham John Kerr (born 1810, died 1887). He lived near Coleraine, Northern Ireland in an area called Roselick.
Abraham John Kerr was my great great great grandfather. He married Isabella Gilliland and they had at least four children;
Hugh Abraham Kerr (b.1843 d.1918)
Mary Kerr (b.1847)
Isabella Sarah Kerr
John Alexander Kerr (b.1851 moved to Otterville,ON,Canada)
At this time the family farmed in an area between Coleraine and Portstewart called Roselick
Son Hugh married Mary Keith of Craigtown (born 1856) and they had three children;
Abraham Bailey Kerr (he was known as Bailey)
William Gilmour Kerr and
Isabell Gilliland Kerr
Bailey was the first bank manager of Belfast Bank in Ballycastle. He then moved to Limerick where he married Ava (Avarina) O'Dell. She bore him a son but both mother and son died. (around 1st July 1909). After Avarina died, Bailey did not look after his health and contracted TB. He was advised to go to a warmer climate and went to South Africa where he was a bank manager for Barclays Bank in Laingsberg and Sea Point
Bailey remarried in 1921 in South Africa to Catherine Regina van Eyssen in a church in Wynberg, Cape Town. They returned for a short while to Belfast to have son called Hugh Keith Bailey Kerr (born 1926, my father). They settled permanently in South Africa in 1927. Bailey died in Cape Town on the 30th December 1948 aged 69.
The South African descendants of Abraham John Kerr are keen to find out what happened to other descendants and also who his ancestors were. We are also interested in any links to Mark and Marcus Kerr or Roselick and also in tracing the history back to the Kerr reivers of Scotland Any information about other Kerr's would be welcome. jon@kerr.za.net
