Melvaig- McRae, McGregor & Chisholm

[amh155]

Hello,

I am new to this forum and hope someone can help with my enquiry. Are there any death or burial records for Melvaig? The LDS reel for Gairloch has no burials. Also are there any records for Lochcarron & Lochbroom prior to 1819 and 1810 respectively?

I have McGregors married to McRaes and Chisholms, and want to find parents names to prove links. Any help or contact with a fellow researcher would be wonderful.

Cheers from 'down under'

Ann

[Gadget]

Hi Ann 

The OPR listings from the GRO for Scotland shows the available records for each parish.

here are the ones for the Rossshire parishes:

http://www.scotlandspeoplehub.gov.uk/pdf/list-of-oprs-57to119.pdf


Gadget

[Kiko]

Hi Ann,

I assume you are looking for Melvaig death records for McGregors, McRaes and Chisholms prior to 1855. In the booklet I have not many appear:

LAIDE BURIAL GROUND
0 McGregor 0 McRae 0 Chisholm

POOLEWE OLD BURIAL GROUND
0 McGregor 0 McRae 0 Chisholm

GAIRLOCH OLD BURIAL GROUND
0 McGregor
1 McRae - Flora McRae d 25.6.1853
1 Chisholm - by Simon Chisholm, father Murdoch Chisholm d Cornhill, Kerrisdale 13.2.1852 aged 62 years.

KINLOCHEWE OLD BURIAL GROUND
1 McGregor - Catherine McGregor d 21.12.1863 (husband Farquhar McLennan)
1 McRae - by Farquhar McRae, mother Catherine, d 4.4.1830 aged 23 years.

Those seem to be all the burial grounds that existed in Gairloch before 1855.

In Lochcarron the booklet has 8 headstones for McRaes, 5 for McGregors and 0 for Chisholms. If you can give the names of the McRaes and McGregors you are looking for in Lochcarron, maybe something appears.

Back to Melvaig (Gairloch is where I've researched the most), there were not so many McGregor families, actually less than 20 in all Gairloch I'd say in the 1841 census. And only one McGregor family appears in Melvaig itself:

JOHN 40 Tenant
FLORA 40
DUNCAN 10

Post the names of the McGregors from Melvaig you are searching for, and what time period, and I might be able to find something.

Cheers,
Francisco

[amh155]

Hello Gadget,


Thank you very much for your reply and the info. Looks like the deaths are non-existent for Gairloch.

Cheers,

Ann

[amh155]

Hi again Francisco,

I didn't realise you had both replies, I was so thrilled to get just one, let alone two.

The John and Flora McGregor you mention are my family. Flora was a Chisholm. John was born about 1802 and died in Melvaig in 1872 age 70. He lived at Croft 12, parents Duncan McGregor & Isabella McRae. He was born at Lochcarron. On the 1851 census Duncan Moffat is listed as a nephew with John & Flora (son of his sister Margaret). Flora died 1877.

John's sister Margaret was my ggggrandmother as already mentioned. She was born in Lochcarron about 1783 with parents Duncan and Ann (according to her death record from Scotlands People) and married James Moffat. With such a difference in age I wondered if Duncan married twice, and Ann was his first wife and died in Lochcarron.

Otherwise there would be several more children to find.

Now Flora Chisholm's parents were Alexander Chisholm and Mary McRae and I wonder if Mary & Isabella are related (sisters?)

I'm interested in the McRae's as my John McRae just appears in the Clan History with no mention who his parents were, and I wonder if he could be connected to these McRae's at Gairlochor a family in Lochcarron. His son Donald married Elizabeth Moffat, daughter of Margaret (McGregor) in 1829 after the McRae & Moffat families moved to Glengarry.

I hope you can follow this. Any thoughts will be greatly appreciated.

Bye for now,

Ann

[Kiko]

Hi Ann,

Unfortunately I don't have much access to information and records from Lochcarron, although I do have some ancestors from there, including some side branches with McRaes. And in Glengarry I have nothing.

Your link to Gairloch is clearly Flora Chisholm. I assume you have her marriage to John McGregor, 28 JUL 1825 in Gairloch. It's in the OPR (in between two of my family members), but there's no additional info, except the reference to Melvaig.

If you are working on that Chisholm line, next door to John & Flora in 1841 you will find a brother of Flora, John Chisholm. Here's what I have from the census + additional info about that family:

John Chisholm 40 (He married Catherine Urquhart 11 JAN 1823 and later married Margaret MacKenzie 14 FEB 1831; he died 23 MAR 1885, aged 85)

Margaret Chisholm 35 (d 30 JUN 1895 in Melvaig, age 84)

Janet Chisholm 15 (Daughter of John's first wife, Catherine. She married John Urquhart and died 27 MAR 1864)

Alexander Chisholm 8 (Born 31 JAN 1832)

Roderick Chisholm 3 (Married Catherine McRae 20 JAN 1870, died 2 FEB 1925 in Melvaig)

The couple had at least 3 more children:

Kenneth: Apparently born 4 SEP 1834 (don't know why he doesn't appear in the 1841 census), married Isabella MacKenzie, he died 29 AUG 1911.

Margaret: Died young in 1857.

William: Born 24 NOV 1841

This Chisholm line was in Melvaig at least until the 1940's, maybe even until today!

Best luck,
Francisco

[amh155]

Hi Francisco,

Thank you once again for the info. I found a Kenneth as Kenth age 7 in 1841 with McPherson widow and Ann Chisholm (widow). Could this be your missing Kenneth. Your Kenneth was the informant on the death of John McGregor in 1872, listed as neighbour.

I'd love to be able to sort out the McRaes. I wish Scotlands People was on subscription, I'd get all the deaths to link them to parents and see where they fit in the bigger picture. But for the moment I'll keep tracking the McGregors.

Bye for now,

Ann

[Aussielost]

Hi

Just wondering if you could help me. I am looking for any information on a Donald Urquhart who married an Issabella McGregor they lived near Poolewe. Have not been able to find anything on the families. I am not sure where to find any burial records for them. They were born in the early 1770's.

Also, another family is the Chisholms. I have a Christina Chisholm who married a Kenneth Urquhart in 1828 in Gairloch. Christina's fathers name was Roderick and her mothers maiden name was Christina or Christian??
if you could help with any information it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Aussielost (Kerry)

[Kiko]

Hi Kerry,

I couldn't find much on your families. But this could be the Urquhart/McGregor family in 1841 (with an interesting Chisholm connection):

1841 Census
Nasd, Poolewe

Donald URQUHART 65 Tenant
Isabel 60
Duncan 26
Catherine 20
Ann CHISHOLM 12 Female servant

Cheers,
Kiko