Author Topic: MacKenzie's of Fodderty and Ullapool  (Read 65504 times)

Offline dmackenzie

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MacKenzie's of Fodderty and Ullapool
« on: Friday 17 August 07 00:54 BST (UK) »
Hi All,
Trying to track down the family of one John MacKenzie (my ggg-grandfather). His wife was Ann McKay and according to a family tree my grandfather scribbled down for my auntie many years ago, they had two sons Kenneth (b. ~ 1811) and George (b. ~1813; my gg-grandfather), and at one point lived in the 'Heights of Strathpeffer'. We've managed to track down the descendents of these 2 sons (Kenneth emigrated to Victoria, Australia, while George moved to the Black Isle and possibly Kirkhill near Inverness), but what we're interested in is other siblings of theirs, and Johns origin.

From the IGI there is a John MacKenzie and Ann McKay who married in Fodderty in 1808, with children listed as:
Catherine, b. 1818, Fodderty
Alexander, b. 1820, Fodderty
Lizy, b. 1823, Fodderty
Janet, b. 1826, Fodderty
Christy, b. 1831, Fodderty

but no mention of a Kenneth or George. Given the gap between the marriage and first child recorded in Fodderty, it's possible the family may have moved elsewhere between the marriage and Catherine's birth. We're reasonably sure it's the same family as John and Ann turn up in the 1841 census as living in the 'Heights of Keppoch' (not far from the town of Strathpeffer, and in the Strathpeffer valley), with some of these children. So this matches with my grandfathers notes.

Again from my grandfathers notes, John came from Ullapool, or at least lived there at some point. From IGI there are baptism records from the Lochbroom parish for a Kenneth and George MacKenzie, with father John in 1811 and 1813 respectively. We speculate (which is always dangerous with genealogy), that John may have came from the Ullapool region, met and married Ann in Fodderty, moved back west for a few years, before moving permanently back to Fodderty.

Based upon the 1841 census age, John would have been born in 1780-1781, and death year is unknown.

If anyone could help shed some light on our family tree that would be great.

Cheers
Darryl
MacKenzie, Stewart, McKay, Baxter

Offline Gadget

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Re: MacKenzie's of Fodderty and Ullapool
« Reply #1 on: Wednesday 22 August 07 23:11 BST (UK) »
Hi Daryl

Not sure if I can help too much but I live (at the moment) near Ullapool and have done a fair bit of research in the area. The Lochbroom Parish records don't go much furth back than the mid-1790s so the chances of tracking John down through the parish records are rather slim  >:(

An aquaintance has managed to get back further using various documents at the National archives in Scotland.

It is quite possible that John did meet Ann on the east side. There were frequent cattle drives over the Dirrie Mor to the Dingwall area and young men often went over to the east coast for the fishing.

Regards

Gadget
Census &  BMD information Crown Copyright www.nationalarchives.gov.uk and GROS - www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk

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Offline dmackenzie

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Re: MacKenzie's of Fodderty and Ullapool
« Reply #2 on: Thursday 23 August 07 00:14 BST (UK) »
Thanks Gadget,
My father grew up in the Black Isle before emigrating to New Zealand and remembers stock being bought across from the west coast to graze on their farm during the 1950's (by a Murdo MacKenzie; no idea if he's a distant relation though), so we figured something along the lines of what you're suggesting was possible.

We've tracked down that Ann was born in Fodderty to a George McKay, so fell that John's father may have been Kenneth, but that's unlikely to help very much given how popular the name Kenneth MacKenzie was in the 1700's!

It's probably a bit much to expect that we'll be able to turn up much more on John (but you never know what's out there in personal family histories), but were hoping that some of the other (possible) sibling names sounded familiar to someone, in particular any descendants of Alexander so we could confirm the relationship with DNA.

Cheers
Darryl
MacKenzie, Stewart, McKay, Baxter

Offline Gadget

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Re: MacKenzie's of Fodderty and Ullapool
« Reply #3 on: Thursday 23 August 07 00:19 BST (UK) »
Hi Daryl

One of our members( don_niagara) might have some information on the McKenzies of Ullapool. He has managed to tap into a lot of sources.  It might be worth you sending him a Personal Message.

Regards

Gadget
Census &  BMD information Crown Copyright www.nationalarchives.gov.uk and GROS - www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk

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Offline dmackenzie

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Re: MacKenzie's of Fodderty and Ullapool
« Reply #4 on: Thursday 23 August 07 00:32 BST (UK) »
Thanks Gadget for the tip. How do I send a personal message though? Sorry, I'm a newbie.
Darryl
MacKenzie, Stewart, McKay, Baxter

Offline Gadget

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Re: MacKenzie's of Fodderty and Ullapool
« Reply #5 on: Thursday 23 August 07 00:36 BST (UK) »
Oh sorry Daryl, How rude of me. i should have welcomed you.

Welcome now  :)

I'll send you a message  telling you how to send a message - see if it works  :)

Gadget
Census &  BMD information Crown Copyright www.nationalarchives.gov.uk and GROS - www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk

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Offline don_niagara

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Re: MacKenzie's of Fodderty and Ullapool
« Reply #6 on: Thursday 23 August 07 01:57 BST (UK) »
Hiya Daryl,

Nice to hear from you!

From the data you have sent I was able to see the christenings of Kenneth and George you note from the I.G.I. in Lochbroom Parish, I have photocopied most of the Register, and it often includes details not extracted into the I.G.I.

The Register shows in both cases the father John MacKenzie resident at Ullapool, no further details though.... Records in that period are sparse,... I have the 1825-7 Militia lists and have slowly been transcribing and annotating them onto my website, and have hopes of obtaining the 1821 list in the next few weeks, but those postdate the time your John was at Ullapool,...

I see your bunch in the 1841 census at Fodderty, with John as 60-64 years old, I guess you have searched, but it would be great if he lived to the start of Civil Registration in 1855...

No great help from me on this queery I fear, other than the passing noting John's wife's surname is one I'd expect in northern SutherlandShire and Caithness...

All the best from Niagara,

Donald.
Primarly Coigach, but also other parts of Ross and Cromarty.

Offline dmackenzie

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Re: MacKenzie's of Fodderty and Ullapool
« Reply #7 on: Thursday 23 August 07 03:20 BST (UK) »
Hi Donald,
Thanks for looking into things for me. I'll keep scratching away and see if I can turn anything up. I have noticed that in the 1841 census (from FreeCEN), this is the only family of MacKenzie's (as opposed to McKenzie's) in Fodderty. Is there likely to be anything in that, i.e., educated enough to check the name was spelt correctly? No offence to all you Mckenzie's out there.  ;)

I've been trying to track down a copy of the 1851 census for Fodderty to see if they're still alive then at least, but not much luck to date.

Cheers
Darryl

PS Is the original Register for Lochbroom organized geographically at all? Or is everything in the one register? Just wondering whether John and Ann may have any other children while over there.
MacKenzie, Stewart, McKay, Baxter

Offline don_niagara

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Re: MacKenzie's of Fodderty and Ullapool
« Reply #8 on: Thursday 23 August 07 13:26 BST (UK) »
Hiya Daryl,

you wrote:

Quote
this is the only family of MacKenzie's (as opposed to McKenzie's) in Fodderty. Is there likely to be anything in that,

Any time pre 1900 "Mc" and "Mac" were interchangable in Scottish records. Handwriting style of the day elevated the c in Mc, often with a horizontal stroke under that, and less often with two dots under that. Someone then seeing "McDond"  would read it as "MacDonald". Similarly a long s which looked like a letter f was used in words with double esses, the name "Ross" is often mistaken as "Rofs" or "Roff".

You also wrote:

Quote
Is the original Register for Lochbroom organized geographically at all? Or is everything in the one register? Just wondering whether John and Ann may have any other children while over there

The Register was kept by date not place. Usually place of residence of the father was noted, from the I.G.I. there were 49 christenings in the Parish from 1809 to 1817 with fathers as John MacKenzie. From the photocopies of the Parish Register the ones at Ullapool could be picked out, perhaps a dozen or more, than some of those could be eliminated if found in the 1841 census with their families, however there would need to be some further source to be looked at to see if the remaining children had any connection...

All the best,

Donald.
Primarly Coigach, but also other parts of Ross and Cromarty.