Durness Parish Register - Part 2

[djct59]

Wanda: At the risk of echoing IanB, you need to take any pre-1760 birth information with a pinch of salt, as unless it relates to an aristocrat with a long pedigree, it's likely to involve wishful thinking.

I'm afraid to say that a search on Scotlandspeople in the parish records of Golspie for a marriage of a John Sutherland between 1760 and 1770 produces only one result, that being on 13th Match 1767, when a John Sutherland marries a Katherine Gordon. Widening the search to the whole county also fails to locate another marriage in that decade for a John Sutherland. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but you really need to have a solid piece of evidence such as a verified birth of marriage record.

 

[Jehane]

I have George MacKay and Elizabeth Sutherland in my tree.  They were the parents of my gggrandmother Jennie Sutherland MacKay and old family research records her as being born 1833 in Bethcoel, Scotland.  She married Abraham Daly of Shelburne, NS and they settled in Beach Point, PEI.  Four of her sisters came to PEI and Hugh Morrison MacKay must have been a brother. 
There are MacKay's listed as passengers on the Barque Ellen that landed in Pictou, Nova Scotia in 1848 and they sailed from Loch Laxford.  There's a George MacKay and Elspeth MacKay listed not sure if it's them though.

[sceahlott]

Hi, would you be able to do lookups for the following durness families please, I got these names and dates off ancestry and would like to confirm them if possible and spouse names and marriage dates.

George Mcleod b 1776 married barbra in 1805 and possible jannet Mckay in 1823.
his father Angus McLeod b 1745, his father william Mcleod b1720, his father hugh Mcleod b 1690.

Catherine Mackay b 1765, her father John MacKay b 1726 (married ann murray), his father john ian mackay b1700, his father hugh mackay b1662.  also any parents of the ann murrayb 1738 mentioned above.

many thanks
Leah

[IanB]

The Durness Parish Register (of the Church of Scotland) commenced in 1764 and would have continued until the commencement of civil registrations in 1856. The transcript of that register by Dr. Hew Morrison covers the years 1764 to 1814.

I checked my copy of the transcript and could not find any of the events you describe*. When you say you "got these names and dates off ancestry|", I assume you mean they were on someone's published family tree. If so, I totally agree with your trying to verify the information because many "trees" are not reliable. Without confirmation, I would be very skeptical about names and dates earlier than 1764 because there are very few places that these could be recorded.
* one possible exception is entry #23 in 1765 which has been cut off in the photocopying process. Also, there is a baptism entry in 1776 involving a George MacLeod but he ( a piper) is shown as the father of John.

Good luck,
IanB

[djct59]

My copy has Angus MacLeod Bain (fair haired) of Clashneach, a long destroyed township between Keodale and Loch Borralie, as the father of George MacLeod, who was baptised on 26th March 1766. Names of spouses were not recorded in Durness parish records until July 1779.

It's perhaps important to avoid confusion between this Angus MacLeod MacNish Bain (thus his father was also called Angus) and the Angus MacLeod MacUilleam MacHustian (son of William the son of Hugh) in Balvoolich, two miles further north. He also had a son George who was christened on 28th April 1776. There is a third Angus MacLeod, a smith and son of John MacLeod, but he was in Ballinloch at the north end of Loch Croispol where the Craft Village now stands.

"Your" Angus had moved to Achunahanait, overlooking the Kyle of Durness, by the time his son Angus was christened on 26th September 1776.

I have to agree with IanB that there is no trace of George marrying anyone in Durness parish in 1805.

As far as I can see, the Murrays were "incomers" to Rispond in the 18th century, and thus are not known by patronymics in the parish records as they hadn't been there long enough.

[sceahlott]

Hi again, thanks for the reply, would you be able to see if you have a Donald McLeod born abt 1809 marrying Isabella Sutherland and did they have a son George b 1834? They are listed as living in tongue.

Also can you find anything on Isabella sutherlands family line? She may have born 1814, father may have been William Sutherland b 1782.

Many thanks for this, we have been wanting to know more about these families for a long time.
Cheers
Leah

[djct59]

Are you still looking at Durness? If so...

There is an Isabella Sutherland listed as christened on 26th March 1814, daughter of Angus Sutherland and Barbara MacKay. She had an elder brother named John Thomson Sutherland born in 1812.

In the marriage entry of 25th December 1811 Angus is listed as "a young man living in his father's house in Saingomore (sic)" and Barbara is listed as daughter of Robert MacKay of Sango.

There are eight children listed as born to an Angus Sutherland of Sango between 1768 and 1782, with Christian Fraser listed as his wife. Unfortunately, none of them is called Angus. the only feasible Barbara MacKay would seem to be the one listed on 21st September 1784, daughter of Robert MacKay alias Miller, Macenmacuileammiller (son of of John the son of William known as Miller) and Margaret Morison. he's listed as a tenant in Keodale rather than Sango, but that's a distance of barely three miles so a move is far from implausible. "Morison", it should be noted, is a correction in the 1784 entry only - in the other two birth entries for this family Margaret's birth surname is listed as "MacKay".

That's as much as I can find. As ianB has already pointed out, precise dates of birth from years before there was any local record keeping are likely to be fanciful in the extreme

[IanB]

Leah,
Tempting as it might be to make use of others' trees etc., I can tell you it often leads to a waste of time. One site that I do not recommend has a name something like JandJroots. This is the work of two sisters and was a tremendous undertaking. I have not looked at most of it - only the entries that concerned my family, or purported to do so - and I have no doubt that much of it is correct; but certainly not all. In the case of my family, it showed ancestors farther back than I had been able to go, even using patronymics. I emailed the site and asked the source of their information, and was told "church records". At that point, I decided not to use the site again because there are no church records going back that far.They appear to have been creative.

Painstaking as it may seem, the best, most-fruitful methodology is to start on a firm foundation, i.e. some officially-documented event, and work backwards from there. There is a site that you may wish to explore if you have not already done so. It is called ScotlandsPeople and is a pay-per-view site, but if you "get all your ducks in a row" before you use it you can limit the use of your pre-paid credits. It is certainly worth Googling it and taking a look. The Mormon church's IGI is also helpful.

Good luck in your search.
Ian

[Munro84]

Hi, I am trying to locate a place in the parish of Durness that appears frequently in the parish register called Uaibeg. If anyone can tell me where Uaibeg is then that would be a great help, even better if someone could pinpoint it on a map. Thanks.