52 Ancestor Challenge—Week 3: “Unusual Name”

More than having an unusual name, my third great-grandfather, William McLeaird, had an unusual story surrounding his name; a story that is one of my favorites.

McLeaird isn't a name or spelling you would think to find very often. The "Mc" at its beginning indicates, perhaps, a Scottish heritage and the word "Leaird" means "lord" or "landlord." Of a royal line or heraldry? Well, this "royal Scot" was born in Anson County, North Carolina in 1792.

At age 21, William enlisted at Marion, McDowell County, North Carolina in the 43rd Regiment commanded by Capt. Goodwin. William and served as a sergeant in that company for 20 months stationed at Raleigh, Wilmington, and Georgetown. Tall and skinny, William was described as 160 lbs and six feet tall with blue eyes.

Two years after his discharge in 1814, he married a local Anson County, North Carolina girl, Elvey Rushing. William was 24 and Elvey was 14. The young couple set out on their life together, moving to the Pendleton District in Anderson County, South Carolina. The Pendleton District had just received former "Indian lands" and was a hotbed of new farming activity.

By 1850, William and Elvey had migrated west, just over the Georgia/South Carolina border to Hart County, Georgia where they lived the remainder of their lives.

In the 1850 Census, William was listed as a 50 plus year-old farmer in Georgia marked as "unable to read or write" (the last mark on the far right). But, somewhere along the line between 1850 and 1860, William became literate, for in the 1860 Census he was no longer marked unable to read and write.

I can't imagine what it would have been like to learn how to read at such an advanced age, in a time without access to books, libraries, the internet, etc. I often wonder what inspired him to learn so late in life. Was it out of necessity? Out of pride? Or a desire to read the latest juicy novels? I'll never know, but I do know that learning to read was at his advantage as witnessed in his War of 1812 pension papers.

As I mentioned before, the spelling of William McLeaird is a unique one, with the "Mc" often dropped in many documents. When it comes to the government and paperwork, getting your name right is a likely priority--or at least William thought so.

On 8 October 1872, from his home in Bowersville, Hart County, Georgia, William wrote a letter to the Commissioner of Pensions. It read:

"...the following is the correct spelling of my name being William McLeaird."

His name had been spelled multiple ways on his military records and he wanted to make sure regardless of those records, that from that day on his name would be spelled correctly. So, perhaps MONEY was his motivator! haha! Who knows... but I love this record!

It isn't often that a genealogist has from the mouth of their ancestor how to spell a surname correctly. So, as unusual as the name or spelling may be, it was William McLeaird's name, and one he could spell and write all on his own.