Our Fyfe Roots

It has been said that the Lords of Fife (the MacDuffs) were once responsible for crowning the Scottish Kings and for that reason, they were not required to swear allegiance to the King, but only to God. ...And accordingly Fife, Scotland was referred to as the "Kingdom of Fife" and not simply Fifeshire as is the case with other Scottish localities. We are Fyfe from Fife and from the clan MacDuff, they say. It all sounds very romantic and far away. Some day we hope to trace our scottish roots to those far away places and ancestors. For now we are limited to what little we have documented below.

We would like to express our thanks to the subscribers of the fyfe-list and to our family. With their help we were able to compile much of the information on this page. If you see any errors in the following or if you can add to what we know, please e-mail us. Your inputs will be greatly appreciated. We are particularly interested in finding one earlier generation than is noted below. The area would likely be Kilbirnie (Fyfe, Maitland) Ayrshire (Fyfe, Park) or Paisley (Park), Scotland, in the early to mid 1800's.

William Fyfe (b. ? d. ? m. 9/12/1842, Kilbirnie, Sct)

Janet (Maitland) Fyfe (b. ? d. ? m. 9/12/1842, Kilbirnie, Sct)

James Fyfe (b. Apr 1, 1859, Dalry, Scotland - d. 1929, Attleboro, MA, USA)

Agnes (Park) Fyfe (b. 1859, Scotland - d.Mar 16, 1947, Pawtucket, RI, USA)

William Fyfe (b. abt 1895 Armoch Lodge, Scotland - d. Bicknell, IN, USA)

Mary Jane Fyfe (b. abt 1894 - d. 1956, Hot Springs Ark, USA(?))

Mary (Fyfe) Parks (b. 1886c, Irvine, Scotland - d. )

Janet (Fyfe) Shaw (b. Oct. 7, 1882 Irvine, Scotland - d. May 31, 1964)

Annie (Fyfe) Hurst (b. Dec. 24, 1898 Scotland, d. June ,1975 Attleboro, MA, USA )

Jean (Fyfe) Leech (b. 1894, Ayrshire, Scotland, d. 1949, Attleboro, MA, USA)

Catherine (Fyfe) Bradley (b. 1894 Scotland - d. 1980 Orange Co., CA)

Agnes (Fyfe) Bradshaw (b. Scotland - d. )

James Fyfe (b. Dec 29, 1900 Scotland - d. Jun 1968, Pawtucket, RI, USA)

Doris (Fyfe) Nelson (b. - d. Hot Springs Arkansas, USA)

James Fyfe (b. April 6, 1919, USA - d. 1987 Fort Pierce, Fl, USA )

Helen Fyfe (b. - d. Feb. 1986 Fort Pierce, Fl, USA )

Leana

First Fyfe Generation

My great-great-grandparents, William Fyfe and Janet Maitland were married on September 12, 1842 in Kibirnie, Ayrshire, Scotland. They had at least a daughter and three sons. Jane, their only known daughter was born on April 9, 1856. Robert was christened on May 12, 1843, James was born April 1, 1859 and their brother John was born on July 26, 1862. Because of the 19 year spread between the known children, it is probable that there were more.

Second Fyfe Generation

Robert was probably born in Kilbirnie where he was christened and where his parents were married. The other three known offspring of William Fyfe and Janet Maitland were all born in Dalry, Ayrshire. Dalry is in southern Scotland. We do not know anything more about Jane. One of the brothers eventually immigrated to Australia. James, my great-grandfather, was only 5'6" and fairly frail looking considering that he was a coal miner. His wife, Agnes (Park) Fyfe, was also born in 1859 but we do not know the area in Scotland where she was born. We believe that her parents' names were also James and Agnes. Her mother, we are told, lived to be 100 and smoked a little clay pipe. We don't really know anything about her father or whether her parents ever came to the US.

James and Agnes Fyfe had 10 children. Two died in infancy. One of the infants that died was named Maggie May. The children that survived to adulthood were William, James, Janet, Mary, Agnes, Catherine, Annie, and Jean. At least two of the children, Janet and Mary, were born in Irvine in 1882 and 1886, respectively. A third daughter, Agnes, was probably born there too. Irvine is a few miles South of Dalry. We believe that soon after Mary was born in 1886, the family moved about 25 miles North to 13 Underwood Road, Paisley. We suspect that the family may have had relatives living in Paisley before they got there. In Paisley, Agnes (my ggrandmother) operated a small store where she sold soup, tobacco products and other commodities.

On January 22nd of 1910, one of their daughters, Mary Fyfe aged 24, left aboard the USS Rumidian out of Glasgow to visit a friend in the United States. This was her third voyage to the US. Two weeks later on February 5, Mary arrived in the Port of Boston, Massachusetts. She continued on for 55 miles from there to 99 Parker Street in Pawtucket, Rhode Island where her friend, Mrs. McGuinness, lived. Mary, a weaver, found herself in the city that is famous for the Old Slater Mill. The Slater Mill was the first cotton mill in America, a mill that spurred the American Industrial Revolution. Later that year, her sister Agnes joined her and they took up residence at 11 Charlton Avenue in Pawtucket, RI. We do not know if either sister (Mary or Agnes) ever returned to Scotland.

Back in Paisley, the rest of the family had moved about a mile to 16 High Street by the end of 1910. By now Janet, 29, who was also a weaver, had married Samuel Shaw. On New Year's Eve, she and her father, James, departed Glasgow aboard the USS Pretorian for the US to join Mary and Agnes. They arrived in January of 1911. The youngest member of the family, Janet's younger brother James, wearing kilts, finally reached the US in 1912. He became a machinist luper ((?) or possibly a machinist keeper) at Wayposet, Mfg. Co. in Pawtucket. My ggrandparents settled at 199 Harrison Avenue in Pawtucket. All of the family immigrated to the same area except the elder brother, William.

James, my g-grandfather, died in March of 1929. He slipped and fell while walking in the snow. At the time, he was taking a shortcut home through the woods. He had been babysitting for my mother, her brother and their cousin. His son-in-law, my grandfather, looked for him for three days before finding him frozen, sitting on a stump.

William arrived in the United States aboard the Columbia at Ellis Island in New York on October 11, 1910. He was an unmarried young man of 25. Probably because he was a coal miner, his destination was Linton, Indiana where there were many coal mines. He eventually married and settled in Bicknell, (Indiana) with his wife Mary Jane. They had three children, Doris, James and one other daughter (private-living). He died of a lung ailment related to the mining industry. It was probably what we today call black-lung disease. After William died, Mary Jane is believed to have moved to Arkansas to be with family.

Mary Fyfe married Alex Parks and lived in Providence, RI where they had three daughters - Gladys, Florence, and Janet. Alex, Mary and all three daughters have died.

Annie married Joseph Hurst, a weaver, and they lived on Reed Street in Attleboro, MA. One of their five or six children, Olive, died fairly young, the rest are believed to be alive today.

James Fyfe (the younger) never married his lifelong sweetheart, Leana. He stayed at the family home in Pawtucket. After his mother died in 1947, he lived with different family members. He probably stayed the most with his nephew, William and his wife (living-private). With them he moved between Attleboro, MA and Central Falls, RI. I remember him having wavy dark brown hair, very rosy cheeks, gray-blue eyes and a rich Scottish brogue. He died in June of 1968

Agnes Fyfe, married Bill Bradshaw and they lived in West Chester, PA. They had a son Frank and a daughter Agnes.

Janet (Fyfe) Shaw lived in Pawtucket, RI. She was best known by her nickname of "Jen". She married Samuel Shaw before she immigrated to the USA. Janet returned to Paisley briefly and that is where her daughter Mary was born in January of 1912. Janet adopted another daughter, May. May was actually a blood relative. May (Shaw) Breault had 3 daughters and 5 grandchildren. They all live in Orange County, CA. The daughters are Cheryl Wood, Patricia "Patti" Willett and Janet "Jenny" Gilchrist (named after Janet "Jenny" Shaw). The grandchildren are Brianna May Wood, Zachary Willett, Ryan Willett, Alexandria Gilchrist and Kaleigh Gilchrist. Janet Shaw's daughter Mary Barber died in 1996 at age 84.

Catherine "Kate" Fyfe married Robert Bradley of Lancashire, England. They had three children that they raised on Oak Hill Avenue in Attleboro, Ma. Robert died of cancer in July of 1944. When their children were adults, one daughter moved to Orange County, California. Kate visited her often and eventually moved to live with her. She lived there for thirteen years until she died in 1980. She is buried with her husband at Mosshasuck Cemetary in Central Falls, RI. Their youngest child, June (Bradley) Mousseau has also died. Their other two children (private) are alive today, living in Oregon and Forida.

Jean Fyfe was my grandmother. She was adored by her nieces, nephews and children. Some documents show her name listed as Jane and others refer to her as Jennie as well. She married Wilfred Leech of Taftville, CT and they lived on Abram street in Pawtucket, RI before moving to Oak Hill Avenue in Attleboro, Massachusetts around 1919. In Attleboro, Jean and Wilfred owned a small farm with a roomy home. They would have large family pot-luck gatherings for the holidays, inviting the whole clan. They had eight children. Ruth, their first born, died in infancy. Myrtle, my mother, was born on December 1, 1916 and she was their oldest living child. Their other offspring were Harold, Florence, Ethel, William, James, and Wilfred. Jean (Fyfe) Leech was blind towards the end of her life due to a brain tumor. She died in 1949 at their Attleboro, Ma home. For more on this family refer to our Leech Page.

The Fyfe surname on this line effectively died with James Fyfe, son of William, on January 14, 1987. According to his obituary this James Fyfe resided in Bruceville, Indiana and was a Fire Chief for the City of Detroit, Michigan. He married twice but had no known children. He and his first wife, Helen, both died in Fort Pierce, Florida, where they retired. He is buried in the Hillcrest Memorial Gardens there. James was survived by his second wife (private).

We have several photos that were taken in Scotland during the late 1800's or early 1900's that we have not yet been able to identify. If you can shed any light on the subjects, please let us know. They are thumb-nailed below.