Christina Macmillan

[MairiD]

Hello Mary,
In my original list (see top of page) should be John (and Dugald?) b. 1825 and Donald b. 1831.
Angus and Mary are my 3x gt. grandparents. The connection is their eldest daughter Elizabeth (Betsy) my gt. gt. grandmother.

Would appreciate details of John as am interested in the wider tree.
I have notes of Flory's and Niel/Neil's respective marriages but not Margaret, b.1811, Angus, b. 1816 and Mary b. 1823.  They may have died young.  Perhaps you know.  Have some notes where I have not established parentage.
Thank you in anticipation,
MairiD

[argyllshiregirl]

Hello,

So glad to get your reply, Mairi! Nice to hear from a cousin, as we are most definitely related then, if you descend from Angus & Mary. As far as I know, our McMillans have 'always' been in Knap, or for a very, very long time anyway. The Uist thing might be a tempting red herring.
Where are you located? I was born in Scotland, lived near Tayvallich, immigrated to Canada as a child, have many relatives still in Argyll, have been back 5 times now, including this past summer. My parents, now in their 80s, are still living and are a wealth of knowledge about the people and the area. I also I have cousin (maybe 4th cousin) who lives in England, who descends from another child of Angus & Mary. He does (or did) a lot of research and has given me quite a bit to share also. I have met him twice now, on visits to Scotland.
How I fit in is this ... John McMillan, s/o Angus & Mary, married Elizabeth Hamilton. (The Hamiltons had come into Argyll from Lanarkshire in the 1850s.) Their daughter, Margaret McMillan, married Dugald McGregor. (He was born in the area, but his parents came from Balquhidder, Perth.) This couple then had a daughter, Eliza McGregor. Eliza's daughter, Marion McGregor, was my maternal grandmother.
I'm digging through my paper notes here and the birth years for the children of Angus & Mary that you have more or less the same, however I have 8 children in my list and Elizabeth/Betsy isn't one of them! Hmmm this is interesting. So I have Angus & Mary married 1807, birth 1811 Margaret, b. 1814 Flora, b. 1816 Angus, b. 1818 Mary, b. 1819 Neil, b. 1823 John, b. 1825 Dugald and b. 1831 Donald. I got all of this from my cousin in England, who was having a paid researcher do it, so I'm willing to bet we don't have all the info. This cousin descends from Neil McMillan who married Betsy Johnston.
We'll get it all sorted out yet!
Mary

[MairiD]

Hello Mary,
Thank you for such a quick and detailed reply!  I am in Edinburgh.  My great aunt, who lived here and died a long time ago now, talked wistfully of childhood holidays in Kilberry, in the early 1900s and the wonderful freedom she and her McMillan cousins had around there, especially on the beaches. I have not been able to get to that part of Knapdale. I have been to different parts of Kintyre but only Lochgilphead and Ardrishaig and that east coast down to Tarbert. However I have studied many online and other pictures and descriptions as well as modern and old maps so have a good idea of S. Knapdale.
Before I write more I am off to check Angus and Mary's offspring on 'Scotlandspeople'.  I have Mary as being born in 1823 and Dugald the twin of John.
If you do not hear from me for a while it is because my brain cells are concentrating on navigating Windows 8 on my new laptop.  My current problem is a constantly fluctuating print size.  Am wondering whether I have a lot of static in me or whether this new integral mouse(pad) is ultra sensitive. It is probably both!
Cheers,
MairiD

[argyllshiregirl]

Hi Mairi,
Never mind, we'll sort all this out yet! I have been very fortunate to have been down to the places that your great aunt loved. My mother was born in 1928 at Ballihourgan and was raised by a McGregor aunt (who's mother was a McMillan) away in Dunfermline, but when WW2 made living in an industrial city dangerous, she was evacuated back to Argyll and lived with her aunt's cousin, Lizzie Anderson (her mother was a McMillan too) at Ardnaw (Ardnoe) Farm and worked in a land girl sort of arrangement. She loved it there. My father was working with his father at Lochead Farm, which had land next to Ardnaw, so my parents met there while in their teens. I know all the nearly funny Gaelic names of the farms where the family was, and how to pronounce them ... sort of! lol  Did you know that Tiretegan is said chair-aich-ee-ginn?

I will look up some more info for you, but I just wanted to leave you with a scan of a newspaper ad from the mid 1930s (likely) for a McMillan that will be related to us, but not sure how yet. It mentions Ardnaw/Ardnoe Farm as well as Mrs. Anderson, who would be Lizzie Anderson's mother, the former Elizabeth McMillan. Enjoy.

Mary
p.s. My Canadian husband is a descendant of a Cuthbertson from Lanarkshire.

[MairiD]

Thank you, Mary, especially for the article and that pronunciation of Tiretegan!
Will try to find Dugald's death certificate.

The Dugald I had listed in my notes with a query beside the name was not a twin of your John.  I have checked.
Elizabeth (Betsy) was the daughter of Angus and Mary Galbraith (also written Galbreath).  Her birth certificate lists her as the lawful daughter of Angus McMillan in Keppoch, born 16th March 1809 and her death certificate gives her parents as Angus McMillan and Mary Galbraith. Have looked again at both this afternoon.

I have a note that Mary Galbraith's parents were Angus G. and Elizabeth Campbell. She died in 1871.  Angus appears to have died between 1851 and 1861.  I have some listings of McMillan gravestone inscriptions from an old copy of the Kist but have never been able to identify which belong to 'our' family because of the proliferation of Angus', Neils,  Donalds, etc.
Wish I had got in touch with the late Marion Campbell of Kilberry many years ago as she had wonderful knowledge of the estates, owners and tenants of S. Knapdale.
Tiretegan was listed as for sale recently I recall. It was on a property website and I studied the pictures with much interest.  You may still be able to find this online.
 Niel/Neil's (b.1819 and a gamekeeper who married Betsy Jo(h)nston) eldest son was James. He left Kilberry with his cousin Neil (Walker----and my gt.grandfather) came east and found work on the railways. They were in Rumbling Bridge then Edinburgh. Each married two sisters; Cuthbertsons from Midlothian.  James had three sons, two of whom (Neil and Angus!) may have emigrated.
It does take a while to grasp doesn't it!
Kind regards,
MairiD 

[argyllshiregirl]

Hi Mairi,

I hardly know where to start. I have a paper file full of MCMILLAN info. but most of it is about the descendants of John MCMILLAN, s/o Angus MCMILLAN and Mary GALBRAITH, as John is my 3x great grandfather. I have a few certificates printed out that I can scan and send to you if you are interested. I have ...
1869 birth for Donald MCMILLAN s/o John MCMILLAN
1911 death for Angus MCMILLAN s/o John
1879 death for John MCMILLAN s/o John
1871 death for Mary GALBRAITH (MCMILLAN)
1915 marriage for Donald MCMILLAN s/o John
1871 marriage for Mary MCMILLAN d/o John
1872 death for Thomas MCMILLAN s/o John
1934 death for Elizabeth CRAIG (MCMILLAN) wife of Donald MCMILLAN
1893 marriage for George MCMILLAN s/o John

The eldest son of John MCMILLAN and Elizabeth HAMILTON, the George who married in 1893, was 'missing' for a long time. He disappeared after his marriage and the story was that he "went to Yorkshire, had a family and contact was lost." Turns out it was Northamptonshire he went to, but only for 15 years. He was widowed, remarried and had 12 children when the family went to Liverpool. Around 1907/08, George went to Canada with the intention of bringing his family later. His wife stayed behind as she was expecting their last child, Alice MCMILLAN. Perhaps George did not like Canada as he went to Wyoming, USA about 1912. Whether because he never settled down enough for his family to join him, or WW1 intervened, or both, he never saw wife nor children again, with the exception of his son, George Jr. who joined him in Wyoming after his service in WW1 ended in 1920. So I have some certificates related to him as well - census in Northants and WY etc.

I must get our mutual cousin, Robert Angus MACMILLAN, onto this too. He has facts that I don't have that would certainly be helpful to you.

Mary

[ram64]

Hi Mairi,
           I am Robert Angus MacMillan my great great great grandparents were Angus MacMillan born 1881 died 1851/55 and Mary Galbraith born 1884 died 1871 aged 87. James MacMillan born 1849 who went to Edinbourgh to work as a porter i think on the railways died in 1930 aged 80. They hed 3 sons Henry died aged 44 never married also there was Neil and Angus born 1879 and 1884. I have loads on MacMillans been doing research since 1997. I have tombstone photos of MacMilans, Galbraiths,Walkers and johnstons all from Tarbert,Loch Fyne, and Kilberry area. Your walkers may have come from Dunmore a place along Kilberry road as i think there a few Walker tombstones in "Kilnish" buriel ground there. I ve been to ALL the buriel grounds in Knapdale at sometime or other.  Please Please reply as really want to contact your by email as want to add your Betsy MacMillan/Walker  line to my tree. Yours Robert Angus macMillan

[MairiD]

Hi Robert,
I am surprised and delighted to hear from you.  It seems we can supply missing jigsaw pieces to eachother.
Will send you an email.  Meantime, can you amend the first dates in your post--ie. Angus, born 1781 and Mary born 1784.  Am not sure whether you can do this now--no matter as I know the dates and make that kind of mistake too.
James married Agnes Cuthbertson in 1878 in Cramond village, now part of Edinburgh. He died in 1930, she in 1931. They actually had four children viz.
Neil b.1879 ---went to America or Canada?
Henry b. 1881, a domestic servant (bootman) in Edinburgh, single (as you mention,) d. 1925 in Edinburgh.
Angus b.1884 went to America or Canada?
Agnes b. 1889,d. three days later, buried in the Eastern Cemetery, Edinburgh.
 
(I can remember talk of distant relatives in former S. Rhodesia, but cannot recall whether they were MacMillans too.)
James and his cousin stuck together in work on the railways, in social life as they married sisters and in home life as they were often neighbours and lived in the same building latterly.  Edinburgh life would have been so very different to that in S. Knapdale!
Have not looked at the Walkers and MacMillan trees for a few months so need to ferret out the papers. Please bear with me.
Mairi.

[fmather]

Hi,
My father, Sir Ronald McMillan Bell, QC, MP, died 1982, aged 67, was the grandson of Flora McMillan (his father's mother) born 1843 in Tarbert, Loch Fyne. Her father was Donald McMillan, a cobbler in Tarbert, born 1815 and his father, Donald McMillan, 1764 to 1845 was a crofter, born in Barnellan just up the road from Tarbert.
I guess we are all related.
I remember that some cousins (2nd cousins??) were running a grocer's on the edge of Tarbert in the 1970s.  There must be a lot of third and fourth cousins of ours in the area.
Fiona Mather