Canada

Via the wonder of the World Wide Web we have been contacted by several of the many descendants of Joseph Fairholm of the English Derby Branch. Joseph and his family emigrated to Canada in 1913. His descendants are now spread across the country and also across other parts of the world. Wilma Stagg, Les Stagg, Nancy Stagg, Joan Williamson, Bertha Townsend, Mark Townsend, Jo Fairholm & Jacinda Fairholm have provided us with an enormous amount of information about this part of the branch that we did not know existed.

Although most of the family members in Canada form part of the Derby branch, there are also two other families that are part of the Scottish Edinburgh Branch - one having migrated into north east England before making the much longer migration across the Atlantic to Quebec and the other moved to Ontario later. Members of these families live in Canada and also in the USA. Two notable members are Larry and Jeff - father and son - both professional American football players. There is more about them below.

If you belong to either of these families then we would be very interested in hearing from you. You can contact me at queries@fairholmfamilytrees.info.

Larry Fairholm & Jeff Fairholm

Larry and Jeff are father and son and both played as professional American footballers in the Canadian Football League.

Larry played more than 100 games with the Montreal Alouettes from 1965 to 1972. He was named a CLF All-Star in 1969 and, in the following year, he was co-captain of the team when it won the Grey Cup. Larry played defensive back.

Jeff spent most of his career with the Saskatchean Roughriders (1988 to 1993) and then for the last three years moved to the Toronto Argonauts. In 1989 he was part of the team that won the Grey Cup. He played at slotback. After retiring, Jeff coached the receivers for the Argonauts.

(For those not familiar with football in Canada, the Grey Cup is awarded to the team that wins the annual championship match.)

The image is a card picturing Jeff.

Some geographical connections

The Fairholme mountain range in the Rockies are named after Grace Penelope, wife of William Fairholme of the Edinburghshire & Borders Branch. John Palliser, who lead an expedition in Canada from 1857 to 1860,named the Fairholme mountain range in the Rockies, near Calgary, Alberta after his sister, Grace Penelope. She was the wife of William Fairholme of the Scottish Edinburghshire & Borders branch. William's travels in the American priaries and the book he wrote afterwards, apparently, inspired Palliser to undertake his own adventures.

Two islands and possible a bay, all in Nunavut, are named after Lt. James Walter Fairholme, William's brother. James Fairholme was the lieutenant on HMS Erebus, half of the ill-fated Franklin expedition sent to complete the identification of the route of the North West Passage. There is more about James on the Scottish Edinburghshire & Borders Branch page.

There is a historic house in Charlottestown, Prince Edward Island called Fairholm (now converted to a hotel). There is an island in Lake Muskoka in Ontario called Fairholme, a hamlet in Saskatchewan and a historic house in Victoria, British Columbia. We are not aware of any family connection with any of these places - yet.