When James Duncan Forbes was born on 19 July 1887, in Pennsylvania, United States, his father, James D Forbes, was 31 and his mother, Margaret Hellena Davis, was 28. He married Clare Maude Dresser on 19 July 1912, in Alameda, California, United States. They were the parents of at least 1 son and 1 daughter. He lived in San Francisco, California, United States in 1920 and Oakland, Alameda, California, United States for about 10 years. He died on 14 December 1957, in Alameda, California, United States, at the age of 70.
Scottish: habitational name from Forbes in Tullynessle, Aberdeenshire, so named from Gaelic forba ‘field, district’ + the locative suffix -ais. The placename is pronounced in two syllables, with the stress on the second, and the surname until recently reflected this. Today, however, it is generally a monosyllable.
Irish: shortened Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Firbhisigh ‘son of Fearbhisigh’, a personal name composed of elements meaning ‘man’ + ‘prosperity’.
History: A family of this name (see 2 above) in Connacht was famous for its traditional historians, compilers of the Book of Lecan.
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