Introduction
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The Family Buie; When he published his excellent study of the Buie family in 1950, the late Robert Bernard Buie wrote the following preface which is true today as it was then: "The history of the Buie family in America, particularly early America, not only parallels that of the nation itself, it comes very near being the history of young America. They were tough, smelly, sweat- stained, seldom washed Scots, but they had a courage and determination, a will and strength that made a home from a wilderness. From a group of Gaelic speaking foreigners 225 years ago, they have become as typical middle class, scattered group as possibly any once closely related family or clan sept in the nation. They have seldom or never been rich, often well-to-do, often very poor. Generation after generation of hardy Scotch ancestry has kept them self-respecting, hard-working, 'doing' people. Many have been pious men. In religion, by far the majority have remained. Presbyterian. By occupation the first were of course farmers. An unusual thing is that many of the male Buies have been doctors in a percentage far above the national average. Physically they seem to have no noticeable characteristics. One North Carolinian says they have the typical long Buie nose while another describes the family as flat-nosed. One family speaks of the tall ranginess of the Buies, while another relates of uniformly medium height and inclination to be overweight. A Buie in Scotland states 'it is characteristic
'for the hair to turn white at an early age' while another says 'my grandfather died at 79 with the usual head of black hair.' Without preparing a table to determine the fact, the Buies do seen to have a bit longer than average life span and a Scotch ability to accept the world as they find it. It is easy to say that any family scattered over the states is average, but on second thought, if all people were like the Buies it would unquestionably be a more militant, sounder, and more stable country."
Research for the Book; Bernard concluded his Scotch Family Buie by stating that someone might wish to complete the research and place the information in a more extensive volume. In 1960, Dr. T. R. Buie of San Marcos, Texas, began to trace his Buie lineage and immediately found that an investigation of all Buie families was needed. This prompted Dr. Buie to initiate a research of all pertinent records with a hope of someday compiling the information into a book. In 1964, Scott Buie of Hillsboro, Texas, although still in high school, began researching his own family and all other Buie families. These two men briefly met in 1966, but their efforts were discontinued because of other responsibilities. Then, in 1980, their association was renewed with a determination to complete the project and provide the various families with a written history and genealogical compendium of the Buies. This book represents the end result.
Format: The book is divided into two parts. The first part contains a historical narrative of the family beginning with the earliest history of the Gaelic people and concludes with the participation of the Buies in the American Civil War. The second part is primarily genealogical with discussions of the Scottish, early North Carolinian, and Canadian families followed by family groups. Each family group represents the known descendents of a certain progenitor. The book concludes with an index of related surnames and an index of Buies arranged alphabetically by given names.
The family groups are in random order. The main progenitors have been assigned a letter. Each succeeding generation is denoted alphabetically. In other words, first generation descendents are "a", second generation descendents "b", third generation descendents "c", and so on. The children in a particular family are listed usually in numerical order according to date of birth. This number follows immediately after the generation letter. When an individual died at a young age, never married, had no descendents, or if there is no additional information, his or her name appears once and what is known about the person is mentioned. Other-wise, if an individual had descendents or if an additional discussion is presented the name is repeated and his family is listed. This sequence is followed for generation after generation until all known descendents have been noted.Conventional abbreviations have been used. Significant ones include "iss." for issue (children), "b., m., and d." for birth, marriage, and death dates and/or location, "bap." for baptism date, "rel." for religious affiliation, "bur." for burial place, "mil. rec." for military service records, and "ca." for circa meaning "about". Dates are immediately followed by the geographical location of the event if known. When an individual's name could mean either a male or female, the abbreviations "m" and "fe" are used to denote the sex.Anyone wishing to find a particular person or group should first consultthe surname and Buie indexes. In many instances, last names were spelled several different ways. The compilers have attempted to use the most common spelling. Occasionally, an ancestor wrote his own name one way, but his descendents spelled the name completely different. In these cases, both spellings are listed.
The early North Carolina families are quite complicated. A section in this book discusses them in an effort to provide clarification. References to pertinent family groups are provided. When the compilers could not quite make concrete associations between individuals or families, possible ties are presented along with suggestions for further research.