Crothers/Carrothers/Carruthers from County Antrim/Belfast - possibly Scotland prior
My mother was always proud of her Irish heritage and passed it on to me. However, I'm reaching dead ends trying to find the history of her/our family. My DNA started out showing I had about 12% Irish in me and it has steadily declined and my Scottish heritage has increased. This leads me to believe that my Irish heritage may have only been a couple generations and prior would have been from Scotland.
Here's what I do know:
My maternal grandfather was born in Belfast. From records on Ancestry.com and FamilySearch it appears that his parents were also born in Ireland (not 100% sure on this, tho). Beyond that, I have nothing. :(
My maternal grandfathers family:
Robert John Crothers (my g grandfather) b. 1851 @ 62 Hillview St, Belfast (FamilySearch record)
married Jane Glover b. 26 July, 1855 in Randalstown, Antrim. Married 29 June 1874
Children:
Robert R. Crothers b. 17 Dec 1875 Belfast, Antrim
Elizabeth Crothers b. 31 Oct 1877 Belfast, Antrim
William John Crothers b. 22 May 1879 Belfast, Antrim
John McGehan Crothers b. 12 Feb 1881 Belfast, Antrim
Thomas Crothers b. 3 June 1883 Banbridge, Ireland
James Stuart Crothers b. 28 April 1887 Belfast, Antrim (this is my Grandfather)
Annie Crothers b. 5 March 1889
The family was Presbyterian. My grandfather and some of his brothers apparently worked on the docks in Belfast at Combe & Barbour. According to some family notes, my grandfather came to America about 1901 and lived with his older sister Elizabeth for a couple years before returning to Ireland for a year or so, then returned to the United States where he ended up moving to the Seattle/Tacoma area of Washington State and worked in the shipyards in Bremerton.
I believe most of his siblings also came to America and stayed sometime around the early 1900's.
Any help tracking this family back before my grandfather and his parents would be Amazing. I'm guessing from my lack of records finding anything further back, that they may have come from Scotland and the name was probably changed from Carruthers/Carrothers to Crothers.
In 1980 I took my mother and her best friend (also Irish heritage) to Ireland for a week. Sadly we weren't able to visit Northern Ireland and we didn't have any of the current information I now have. We crossed over to England and Scotland at one point and, by chance drove through the town of Carrutherstown. My mother suddenly commented "I think I remember my father saying one time, that we had Scottish heritage". Never heard any more about it since she had no records or other proof.
Thank you for ANY help!!
John S. Fields
Mesa, Arizona USA
