Genealogy Chat

Georgina, I forgot to mention that I have tried Scotlands People, and that I WILL try IGI. Thanks for the hint, Linda

Georgina and John: Thanks so very much for replying. Yes, I'm certain of the information I have; it's from our Family Bible. The information I have in the 1700s is as follows: Neil MacDonald (1787) was born in Aringour, Isle of Coll, and had six siblings and two wives, Flora Kennedy and Mary (I believe also Kennedy - sisters). Mary had seven children and Flora had one child after Mary passed away. In 1820, the family emigrated to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. No problem tracing them since then. Neil's father, Hector (c.1746) was born in Knock, Isle of Coll and, as I noted in the previous paragraph, had seven children. His wife was Marion MacKinnon and I found their marriage certificate dated 14 March 1787, in Tyree. I believe all marriages, births and deaths had to be registered on the Isle of Tyree, but I can't find his birth certificate or parents names. On the LDS site, there are 2 Hectors in 1746 and 7 in 1747 -- and I could be years off in either direction! I know the Macs and Mcs get all screwed up back then and I've found mostly the Mc spelling on line for Neil, Hector and Marion. Now I'm wondering if I should use the Gaelic spelling to get further back. I've tried the LDS site, but NOTHING. I can't afford to sign on with ancestry.com as well as THIS site. It's interesting because the history of the MacDonald Clan is pretty well documented up until about 1600 and then the clans split into a thousand different branches. So it's critical that I close the gap between 1600 and 1746 in order to actually know the origin of my particular clan. Hence the dilemma! Hope all of this is of some usefulness. Please let me know if you need anything further. I'm going to try the site you suggested, John. Thanks so very much, Linda

There's a recently set up Scottish genealogy website http://scotfamtree.11.forumer(.)com/ (delete brackets) with very helpful moderators. The information you've given is a bit sparse. Are you sure about your research on later generations? ScotlandsPeople is the primary source but you need to be pretty certain about what you're looking for to avoid spending too many 20p credits on wild goose chases. The information when you get to it is very good, though parish register entries this far back cost £10 each. John

Linda you havn't given us much info to go on? Have you tried the IGI or Scotlands people? Georgina.

Does anyone have any hints as to where I can look for information? I'm running out of ideas. I don't know where they came from before Coll. Thanks so much, Linda