The author, Hilton McLaurin is a descendant of Duncan McLerran, 1790 settler near present day Laurinburg, North Carolina. Duncan led a contingent of sixteen McLaurin and a Stewart families from Appin, Scotland to the Upper Pee Dee River valley in North Carolina. Earlier, Appin kinfolk, now in the Cape Fear, had led the way. Hilton started researching the Kindred in Scotland with the surname meaning son of Laurence, under Banks McLaurin Jr. the Editor of a "Clan MacLaren Quarterly" for over a decade in the 1960s and 1970s.
The main hypothesis that Hilton has come to, is that the modern surnames McLaren, and McLaurin, and McLerran, and their many variations in spelling, is not derived from one single individual. The modern surnames are derived from multiple individuals within a Kindred where the given name Laurence, is used frequently. Resulting in many McLaurences across a wide region of Scotland. The following is a compendium of contemporaneous primary sources and later secondary sources, that are readily available online or with a few queries.I hope that this resource is helpful in your research
Hilton McLaurin
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