Isle of Lewis, Lower Barvas - History Pre-1800's

[Laura Hunt]

I am tracking down my family's maternal line who were well rooted in the village of Lower Barvas on Isle of Lewis during the 1800's and I suspect the 1700's.  My understanding is that the Parish of Barvas did not start maintaining Birth, Marriage, Death records until 1810 so my research is stalled at a gggggreat-grandmother born circa 1760.

My question is: where does one go, either on-line or physically, to research the history of Barvas for past centuries, specifically Lower Barvas if possible or does anyone know offhand the history of Lower Barvas - how was it settled in 'recent' centuries (emigrants due to Jacobite uprising?).  I understand vikings had settlements on Isle of Lewis/Harris as well, could the villages of Barvas have started then?  What major events occurred between the viking settlements and the Jacobite uprising that could have had an impact on Lower Barvas' emigrants?

I was born and raised in the United States and am Very new to the history of Scotland. The maternal ancestor is Mary MacIver, who lived in Lower Barvas in 1841 judging from the census, married to Kenneth MacLennan who I believe was deceased before 1841.  I am interested in finding her mother also.

Thank you in advance to anyone who can help me in my research. 

[Scottish Janealogy]

Hi and best wishes in your research.

You may well find the Statistical Account 1791-99 section on the parish of Barvas very useful as background. Don't be put off by the title, the content is much wider and usually written by the minister. You can access the report by following this link http://stat-acc-scot.edina.ac.uk//sas/sas.asp//?action=public&county=Ross%20and%20Cromarty&naecache=4&parish=Barvas&searchtype=bycounty&session-id=046ad2c442679f0116db4580ca6a9ff6&submit=Find%20report#bycounty Scroll down the first page you get and choose the non-subscriber option, the link is Browse scanned pages, which will then take you to a page from where you can view both the late 18th century report and the one written in the 1830s/40s).

[Laura Hunt]

Thank you so much.  I had come across this site before and read an account of Barvas between 1791 and 1799.  I don't think the author was too impressed with the place, or maybe it was written in a humorous style that was simply lost on me.

I recently found another web-site as well which gives a nice overview of the early history of the Outer Hebrides - posting the link in case anyone reading this post is interested:
http://www.hebridespeople.com/history/

I should mention I've quite thoroughly reviewed the online register entries on scotlandspeople.gov.uk but till wondering, where would one go in Barvas / Stornoway to find any written records from these earlier periods if they did indeed exist?

Thanks again.

[Flattybasher9]

"I was born and raised in the United States and am Very new to the history of Scotland. The maternal ancestor is Mary MacIver, who lived in Lower Barvas in 1841 judging from the census, married to Kenneth MacLennan who I believe was deceased before 1841.  I am interested in finding her mother also."

I.G.I. has the birth of a Mary MacLennan to a Mary Maciver Maclennan and Kenneth MacLennan, but on the 6th June 1891 in Stornoway.

http://www.rootschat.com/links/016fi/

Regards

Malky

[Laura Hunt]

Thanks Malky.  Yeah, her marriage would have been about 100 years earlier.  I'm sure I read that Barvas did not keep these records until 1810 so there will be no information before that year.  Anything known will either have to be by some one else's account or maybe a grave site.  Thank you for that link - it will help in my other research!

[Scottish Janealogy]

You will find the detail about the state of the Barvas old parish registers in the Barvas section on familysearch.org (seems to be down just now) but the SAFHS booklet on parish registers does say 1810-54 only for baptisms and marriages in Barvas, and no burials.

Have you been in touch with Western Isles Archives at all? http://www.cne-siar.gov.uk/archives/collections.asp  Collections listed here are more modern than you are looking for but might help with more recent generations.

Also the Seaforth Papers at the National Records of Scotland (GD427) contain various rentals for Barvas - but you would have to be in Edinburgh to check them - http://www.nas.gov.uk/onlineCatalogue/