Find Ancestors

Oh yes. Pam.......I've heard back from Evelyn but she is not up to it at the moment. Any other time I think she would have jumped at the chance but, given the circumstances of her poorly husband.............


Sending her lots of love.....such a difficult time for her and the family.

Hi Kathy,

My Scottish geography is very sketchy to say the least but, when dealing with Tarbat, I know that Portmahomack has been included and that Stornoway and Ross and Cromarty always seemed to be linked in someway.

Further back I think I mentioned that I had been in touch with the present incumbent of the church at Tarbat who sent me a picture of the house where the MacLeod family lived....it was in Portmahomack.

Don't know about Balnabruach or Rockfield though. Will make some enquries in that direction. Thnaks for that.

Not been on for a while but I still have been looking .

Have we all been searching in the wrong place ???? Double checking things I see that the Rev Donald McLeod was the minister in Tarbat in 1901 and also 1911 .From the records all his children were born in Tarbat

However

"TARBAT, a parish in the district of Easter Ross, county Ross and Cromarty, Scotland. It comprises the villages of Portmahomach, Balnabruach, and Rockfield. It extends in length about 7½ miles from N.E. to S.W., with an extreme breadth of 4½ miles; and is bounded by the Dornoch and Moray friths, and by the parish of Fearn. The land is of a fertile character, and the soil generally light and sandy, with a deep black loam in some parts. Tarbat Ness, the ancient Aræ Finium, is marked by a revolving lighthouse, put up in 1830; it is 175 feet above sea-level, and is visible at a distance of 18 miles. The coast, which is 15 miles in extent, is rocky, but has several natural harbours and small creeks. The village of Tarbat is about 10 miles N.E. of Tain, between Dornoch and Moray friths. In its vicinity are ruins of several castles and of a chapel. Many of its inhabitants are employed in the fisheries, and some in a hemp factory. This parish is in the presbytery of Tain and synod of Ross. The stipend of the minister is about £270. The parish church stands in the centre of the parish. There are a Free church, also a parochial school, Gaelic school, and a private school. The principal modern seat is Geanies."

"BALNABRUACH, a village in the parish of Tarbat, in the county of Ross, Scotland, 8 miles from Tain. It is situated on the peninsula between the Moray and Dornoch Friths."

"PORTMAHOMACK, a village in the parish of Tarbat, county Ross and Cromarty, Scotland, 9 miles E. by N. of Tain. It is situated on Dornoch Frith, under Tarbatness, and is a sub-port to Inverness. There is a pier of about 400 feet, extending along the shore of the harbour, which is low and sandy."

"ROCKFIELD, a hamlet in the parish of Tarbat, county Ross and Cromarty, Scotland, 5 miles S. of Tain. There are also numerous small places and private seats of this name in Ireland."

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868)
Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]

No where near Stornaway .

What do you think ????

Kathy

Thanks for that Pam - I'll have a word with Evelyn and see what she thinks.

Saw this and wondered if BBC Scotland might be of any help

Do you have Scottish ancestors?

A new series of Digging Up Your Roots begins on BBC Radio Scotland in January 2012, and the producers are looking for people with an interesting ancestor - or just a good tale to tell about their family tree. Email [email protected] if you are able to help.

No probs. All born in Scotland. Thank you for the idea though.


Sending love to Evelyn. <3

Thanks for looking Cynthia. I had just wondered if she could be found at Fort George before she went to stay with her cousins. Were any of the children in that family born abroad?
Thanks
Julie

Hi Jooleh, I think Fans has scoured the 1911 with most permutations but, I do have some credits so had a look......nope, she's part of a MacLeod family but not ours! Donaldina seems to have been quite a popular name at the time......goodness knows why! :-S


Thanks anyway.

Someone may already have looked at this but just in case.......doing a free search on SP 1911 census in Inverness and putting Fort George in the advanced search, there is one Donaldina Macleod and she is 5 years old. I can't get any more info as no credits.

Julie

Funnily enough Julie, I clicked onto the site and went to look at the Stornoway Historical Society......one of the contributors there is the chap I am already in contact with re the Nicholson Institute etc. that was quite interesting!

I'm pretty sure Evelyn had put an advert in the Stornoway Gazette a while ago.


I'm getting to the stage where I can see I am going to be asking for sightings of a young girl anywhere between 1905 and 1915 - somewhere in Scotland.....arrrrggghhhh.

Hi wisechild, if you look at page 46 on here, you will see a list of the family and the info we have on them so far. Admittedly, more work needs to be done on some of them in case they have descendents around.


Just going to take a look at your link Jule....thanks.

Just popping in.................thanks Evelyn for the names of the marriage witnesses - no real clues there then.

Sorry if this has been posted before but this site looks interesting:

http://www.rootshebrides.com/resources/resources/

If given the backbones of the story they may be able to admit defeat before they even start or give a quote for researching if they think there's hope of finding something?!

Julie

Perhaps you could ask about descendants of the family from the manse.
It was a big family & chances are that not all of them left the island.
If the local radio could be persuaded to give the problem some publicity, I´ll bet a lot of locals will want to get involved & at least they would be on the spot to do a bit of "digging".
Most of the local families will be inter related, however distantly.

I have sent a message to Dingwall library.


Also, forgot to say that I told my contact re the Nicholon Insitute that Diane may have gone under her middle name of Leslie. He replied that it was not a local name and would have stood out.

Any thoughts on pursuing the Leslie name?

All ideas are welcome wisechild........but I'm not sure how we would phrase such a request.


Our missing person is unlikely to be found under the name we know her by so I guess asking for information on Diane Leslie MacLeod isn't going to work.

I wonder if it's likely that there are any very elderly folk who remember the MacLeod family from the Manse? Mind you, it's nearly 100 years ago so not probable really.

Any ideas???




:-D

Cynthia.
Have been wondering for ages whether to mention this or not as it´s not really very helpful.
When I was 1st married our next door neighbour was from Stornoway & she often used to talk about a presenter on the local radio, called Donny MacLeod who was her cousin.
I got the impression he was older than her & would estimate that she was born in the late 1940s.
Might it be worth asking the local radio station to put out an appeal???

I will just add that I told my contact that we doubted that Diane was her real name so I am hoping he took that on board.


I think I may get in touch with the library at Dingwall to see if they can help.


We are looking for a young girl....probably living with the MacLeod family..but we are not sure. Easy peasy then!!!!

Okay....10.25pm.

Message from my contact at Stornoway Historical society reads thus:


I believe the Nicolson school registers are still at the school but I don't
know how many of the earlier ones are still extant. If I recall correctly
Diane was about 8 when she was here? She would have been in the infant school though. The Nicolson annuals start in 1901 but by no means were produced regularly the second issue didn't appear for 9 years (1911). The addresses of pupils are recorded.

I am of the opinion, however, that Diane did not attend the Nicolson. I would need to check when the infant school part of the Nicolson opened.

If Rev. Macleod were indeed her real uncle, then she would have been perhaps been in the Cromore school (the village he came from and presumably her father, Robert). The log books for Cromore are now in the Stornoway Library. I have examined them and there is no record of Diane. No one seems to know where the register is though.

I would assume that the school registers for Portmahomack (if she attended there) still exist. I don't know if the school is still there. If it was
closed then they would likely be in the county library at Dingwall.



Any thoughts anyone??????

Weren't some of those present day nuns young Renes? Lovely to see that they seem to be a thriving convent.


Those GF girls were a very talented bunch all round I think.


One day, deep breath....one day, we will get a clue........

Cynthia

I to thought the web page very good ----

I noticed that about the G F girld
I know some were very talented ----

but they are of a age to have had a child

My thoughts are also with you Evelyn -- I know what a strain Chemo is

Love Renes <3