RUNCIMAN Family Tree showing the branch of William of Crail Born 1720, & Still Going Strong** (see note at end!) LATEST - It's my sad task to record that my own mother passed away on 18 January 2012. Catherine suffered from Parkinsons Disease laterally and died at Westlea Care Home, Neilston, Glasgow where she'd lived for 5 years. She was a lovely lady, contented and uncomplaining to the end. It was she who replied to Ros when Ros had first made enquiries of us in 1973 to see if we were related.
Jack Runciman of Australia, who celebrated his 88th birthday last year, is living patriarch of the Crail line throughout the world. He is a great, great, great, great grandson of William of Crail. Jack's great grandfather Matthew emigrated to Australia in 1857. I believe that Kay Kerr, Canadian by birth, is the oldest woman on the tree, at 92. Kay married Jack Kerr, a son of Annie Runciman who, with her husband Jack, had emigrated to Canada in 1904. Kay has kept in touch with both the Kerr and Runciman families back in Scotland throughout her married life. 'Lang may yir lums reek' (literally, long may your chimneys smoke).
Pictured top left, the group who shared a pleasant evening meeting relatives from across the world when Aussies & west-coast Scots met up in Ayr, Scotland in August 2011. Following 3 nights in the west, they moved on to Scotland's east coast where Bill, Eileen & Phyllis Runciman hosted them around the Runciman 'cradle' of Crail, Dirleton, Haddington & North Berwick.
My name is  Alan Runciman
. I live in Ayr, the historical county town of Ayrshire of 50,000 inhabitants on the west coast of Scotland. Ayr is about 30 miles south of Glasgow. Although I'm not alone, even today Ayrshire is not familiar Runciman territory, although we can boast of a Runciman birth here in 1683. Our roots are in the Scottish Borders & east coast, where we don't need to spell our name everywhere we go! The Scottish Borders region has a long and proud history around agriculture and horses, from which our "Rouncie" name-stem evolved. (Latin - 'runcinus', a saddle horse. Suited for routine riding or driving.) The breed name has lapsed over the centuries. Our family website was created to upload and maintain the wealth of research that has been undertaken over many years and published in our family's 2004 book "Scotland and Beyond" compiled by Jen Jelley and Diane Middleton. There are still a few copies left - use my contact link above if you wish to arrange a copy or to get more information first. Better still, you can contact Jen or Diane direct from the members page on this site. About 'My Pages': Our site here includes a My Pages section which carries on the spirit of 'Scotland & Beyond' with pages on Anniversaries, War Heroes, Ships/Boats, amongst others, which helped shape our family story and other cover aspects of family life. Click on the My Pages icon at the top and then click on the pages offered. We're indebted to Ros Runciman in Australia for unearthing long lost relatives in the days when all correspondence was painstakingly handwritten (there are photos of some of Ros' handwritten family branch in the photo albums. Similarily to Reg and Vi Runciman who began this task even earlier. At the Scottish end, in the first half of the 20th century Mary T Runciman (in whose house I was born-alas, also in the first half of the 20th c) devoted considerable time to family history having heard so much history from her mother Mary (b 1851). She was followed by Joan Whillas whose husband Eric Whillas is a descendant of the 'Orkney' Runcimans. The Scottish 'Crail' baton is now taken up by Bill Runciman and his sister Phyllis, as well as myself. Also, through MyHeritage, we exchange & match online with other family members whose Runciman ancestors can intertwine our family history with theirs. Lawrence Fletcher contributed a huge amount of quality and interesting family research information directly to our site. Thanks, too, to those not mentioned specifically by name, whose input has helped create the tree we have here, but whose work I did not have the privilege to see at first-hand. Hopefully all persons named in the book have now made it to our website. Additional information from "Scotland and Beyond" will make it too, it just takes time! Now we use technology to great advantage both in communication and in research. Lorna Henderson has developed a 'One Name Study' of the Runciman name and DNA testing and analysis. This tells us that there are 4 related Runciman lines - 1a David Runciman/Margaret Brown 1b William Runciman(Crail)/Elizabeth Jamieson 1c Thomas Runciman (Dunbar)/Alison Grieve 1d Alexander Runciman(Dunbar)/Janet Hendrie
There are a further 2 branches unrelated to these 4, which themselves relate with each other. (2a James R/Agnes Herriot and 2b Thomas R/Mary Redpath). There are a small number of other lines whose history is not yet traced back fully or placed in context to the 'researched' lines above. Although we know to whom we're related we have not uncovered the historical records which tell how William was related to the other patriarchs - were they brothers or cousins, or perhaps the relationships go even further back? To follow Runciman family history beyond our site's exclusive interest in William of Crail (DNA line 1b above), there is in-depth information on all Runciman lines (including ours) to be gained from Lorna's sites at : www.runciman.lornahen.com www.dnasurnames.info/lineages/spRUNCIMANLineages.htm http://worldfamilies.net/surnames/runciman/results http://RuncimansAll.blogspot.com There are also sister myheritage Runciman sites managed by myself which sit alongside William of Crail's with the intention of increasing chances of 'Smart Matches'. These trees generally follow other branches of Runciman lineages. These are www.jamesruncimanc1800.myheritage.com www.williamrunciman1827.myheritage.com www.thomasruncimanearly1700s.myheritage.com www.jamesruncimanc1702.myheritage.com You're warmly invited to contribute to our family knowledge on this site - photographs and anecdotes are very welcome. Please also let me know of your close family changes - hatches, matches and despatches. I ask for the understanding of relatives who have deceased or divorced family members shown on the calendar as having birthdays or anniversaries; I can't make a judgement myself on such situations and have to rely on being told. We are fortunate too that an artistic flair has run through the family for generations, so paintings, drawings of ancestors, personal family history etc would be a wonderful bonus. I am speaking with Gail Runciman-Nicholls in Australia, one such artist, to select a Runciman family scene from her existing portfolio or alternatively commission a bespoke one of my own close family. Imagine hanging a painting of my own family in our great banqueting hall here in Ayr - ok,ok, hall!
The site was last updated on May 28 2012, and it currently has 21 registered member(s). If you wish to become a member too, please click here.
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Happy Browsing! Regards, Alan Runciman note referred to above: ** with a passing nod to Johnnie Walker Scotch Whisky whose advertising strap line "Born 1820 and Still Going Strong" I have ..er..adapted. Cheers, Johnnie, we're 100 years ahead of you!! | 
