DONALD MCLEAN Born 1772 in Fort William Argyll

[Don.Gordon]

Hi Cathy,

There is a photo of the grave on page 34 in the big red book (BRB) "History of Donald & Christina ....".  It is not a good photo and you can't see any of the inscriptions.  The Stathalbyn museum staff are very helpful and they may have a better photo or might be able to tell you what is written on the grave.

My line is Archibald's olderr brother, Allan senior.  The pedigree is Donald Mclean & Christina McPhee, Allan snr Mclean & Catherine Dawson, Alan jnr McLean & Sarah Thompson, Sinclair McLean & Stella Matthews, Jeff Gordon & Dora McLean, and then me.  My mother, Dora, is 95 years old and in good health, living near Brisbane.  I am 66 years old and living near Perth. 

It would be great to update the BRB which was compiled 17 years ago.  It is very good considering that is was written before the recent improvements of sources on the internet.  The new BRB needs to be more readable so that it is of greater interest to more descendants.   

What I have in mind is building a network of people, for each of the 11 children of Donald and Christina, who will share their research or are will help contact the descendants of the 11 lines.

I will contact you in a few weeks.

From Don

[Cathy_Aus]

Hi don:)
Thanks for your reply and info...Do u know where the Middle name Sinclair comes from as my son in law too has it as his middle name..thinking its a direct line too
Regards
Cathy:)

[Don.Gordon]

Hi Cathy,

I don't know where the name Sinclair came from.  It is not an usual Scottish name but amongst the Donald and Christina descendants it first was used by your Archibald for his son(s).  My grandfather Sinclair was the next generation.   His father, Allan jnr, might have got the idea from Archibald Sinclair, but it depends on how much personal contact there was between the cousins. 

On the other hand, the name may have come from somewhere in the Janeway line.

From Don

[Suzanne HILTON]

Hi I have been reading the Big Red Book that my Mum has received and contributed to over the years. I am the great great granddaughter of Donald McLean of Strathalbyn who was the first farmer to plant wheat in SA.
My mother is Margaret McLean and her parents were Anthony Hugh McLean and Annie Myrtle McLean.
I am gradually finding that I have many unknown cousins so would love to hear from extended extensive families out there from the McLean's ancestry.

Cheers
Suzanne Hilton - Shaw 

[Don.Gordon]

Hi Suzanne,
It is great to hear from you.
I can see your family on page 223 in the Big Red Book.
I am in contact with a small network of the descendants of Donald and Christina and we are trying get the original history onto the internet.  It will then be easily available to the many descendants - there might be about 20,000 of us now!  When it has been setup the website will make it easy for the cousins to initiate contact with each other.
Do you want to keep informed when we make some progress with this project?
If you want to make direct contact with me you can email me don.gordon1@hotmail.com
From Don