(1894-11 May1986), genealogical researcher. (Elizabeth Blair; she was known as Lizzie Blair and sometimes used the name herself but was known to dislike it) (date of death 12 May also found) Born at Dunvegan, GC. Parents: Gordon Ferguson and his wife Catherine Anna Bella Cameron (see Mrs C. A. B. Ferguson). Elizabeth Blair was a school teacher by training and occupation, but by her special interest she was a genealogist focussing on the families of GC and Stormont and the U E Loyalists. She had a vast knowledge of her subject and included many pleasing anecdotes in her conversation but published relatively little. Her publications included “Glengarry: Stones of Remembrance” [on Dunvegan cemetery] in Families (Ontario Genealogical Society, 1977) and “Loyalists of Lancaster Township,” in The Loyalist Gazette (United Empire Loyalists’ Association of Canada, 1978) and articles in the annual volume of the Glengarry Historical Society. Besides being a dedicated volunteer worker for UE Loyalist organizations, she knew and worked with the GC area genealogists and historians of her time, including Ewan Ross, Alex W. Fraser, Harriet MacKinnon, and Royce MacGillivray. She co-operated with Ewan Ross in preparing and issuing their valuable booklet, The Gordon Church, St. Elmo and the Inscriptions on Its Tombstones (1972, pp. 17) which incorporates a history of the Gordon church by the Rev. G. Watt Smith. In 1976-1977 she was employed to do several weeks’ research in Toronto for the MacGillivray and Ross history of GC then in preparation. In her last years she gave many of her genealogical files to Alex W. Fraser. She spent her later years in Toronto, and did research into her 80s. She died in Toronto. (two children) She was the sister of CHRISTINA, EDITH and Martin Ferguson. She was married in 1920 (Cornwall Freeholder 8 July 1920) to MacKenzie Gordon Blair (Gordon Blair), of Moose Creek, who died 1940. One historian who knew her, looking back on her career, has often been inclined to think (even though he knows the world does not change in such a way) that she belonged to a sweeter and better age of the kinds of studies she indulged in, before they became the subjects of rivalry and when researchers happily shared their findings, instead of hoarding them jealously.
Campbell (1990) 102-108 * Campbell & McDermid, Kennedys, 493 * personal knowledge * Bibliography of Glengarry: index *obituary The Loyalist Gazette (June 1986) (portrait)