Donald families throughout Aberdeenshire

[lakeview]

Hey, cousin, distant though you may be!

Elspet Donald married William Finnie.  William was brother to my great-grandfather, James, whose son Francis (they loved to keep using the same names, just to confuse future genealogists) emigrated to Canada, followed by several of his brothers and nieces and nephews.  I see that you can't use the personal message system in rootschat until you have 3 messages online.  Once that happens, you can send me a personal message with your email address and I will send you a report with the whole Finnie family laid out for you. 

The Finnies originally settled around Marquette in Manitoba and later moved to Kamsack, Saskatchewan, although some stayed on.  One, Isabella Finnie, married George Thompson and lived in Holland, Manitoba.  She died in 1971, but had a pile of kids, who are probably still around.  My dad, went out to Canada at the age of 20 and lived first in Kamsack, then moved to Winnipeg, before the depression hit and he returned to Scotland.  His mother was a Finnie. 

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Jean

[Gillian-Lesley]

Hi again Jean:

Well, this exciting!  Particularly hearing of the Manitoba connections!  So your great grand uncle (William) married my great grand aunt.  I'm not sure if my brain can figure out just what sort of cousins you and I are but I'll put you on the christmas card list nevertheless!

I haven't used Rootschat very much but if, as you say, by posting three times I can send you a personal message then this is #3 and I'll now go and see how I do that.

Thank you in advance for all the lovely info you're willing to share with me!  If you don't have the newspaper article about William Finnie being sued by his daughter-in-law (Jane Burnett) I'll pass that on.  I also have the will of William's son (William Morrison Finnie)...

--Jillian

[Jo92]

Hello,

Is this still active? If so, please send me your email address [by personal message] ^(*)  as I have some questions.

Thanks,

Jo



(*) Moderator Comment: Avoid giving out your e-mail directly on here, to avoid spamming and other abuses.
Please use the Personal Message (PM) system for exchanging personal data.

[MoreGubbins]

To anyone reading this thread, in the interim, we've done quite a lot more work on putting together this database of Donalds. However, we're now at the stage where more progress is able to be made through Y-DNA testing than conventional genealogy. If anyone is interested in Y-DNA testing their Donald lines in Aberdeenshire, Kincardineshire, Banffshire or Moray, please let me know.

Jo - I've sent you a private message.

Cheers,

Iain.

[anabanana]

Hello, I'm descended from Donalds of Huntly.  Specifically John Donald, Weaver, Huntly.  He married Elspet Cameron in 1809.

[MoreGubbins]

Thanks - we were looking at John Donald and Elspet Cameron in July but couldn't take them any further than their 1809 marriage record.

In general, there are very few Donalds in Huntly, and most of them appear to have come there from elsewhere. The 1790s were hard times in the north east, and lots of people moved about at that time. Many of the Donalds we see in the area around Huntly have come over the border from Banffshire. The locus of Donalds in the area appears to be somewhere near Boyndie. While I haven't gone back into the earliest records of Banffshire as much as Aberdeenshire, there are Donalds present in Boyndie since at least 1702. We don't have any Y-DNA tests from the Banffshire Donald families to compare to at present. Of course, many Donalds in the area also spread from elsewhere in Aberdeenshire, although these tended to arrive later, and if any living Donalds of that family still exist, then they could be Y-DNA tested to see if they match the Aberdeenshire families.

However, there were also many Donalds in Huntly in earlier times. A James Donald in Raws of Huntly gave up his arms in 1716; George Donald enlisted in the Gordon Highlanders at Tombae in 1792, while William Donald served 1824-1848; Mrs. William Donald paid property tax in 1807; Alexander Donald was schoolmaster there 1799-1816. The 1810 tax records record this Alexander Donald, and a William Donald, weaver in the town. William is also mentioned in the 1820 tax records. We have yet to determine whether any of these are associated with your family.

Best regards,

Iain.

[anabanana]

Hi Iain,

Thanks so much for your very informative and helpful reply.  I had wondered if John could have been the son of Alexander Donald and Janet Largue.  This couple seem to have had at least 5 children, between New Deer 1773 and Huntly 1784.

As far as I know John Donald and Elspet Cameron just had the one child, a daughter called Lily Donald who in her marriage record appeared to have given her surname as Alexander. She is also under the name of Lily Alexander on her first child's baptism record.  Thereafter every reference to her is under either Donald, or her married name of Mann.

The William Donald, weaver, that you mention sounds interesting as John was apparently a weaver to trade.

[MoreGubbins]

We have Alexander Donald m. Janet Largue with children:
John, bap. 08 08 1773 Old Deer ABD
James, bap. 15 10 1775 Old Deer ABD
James, bap. 05 10 1777 Old Deer ABD
Margaret, bap. 29 08 1779 Old Deer ABD
William, bap. 18 11 1781 Old Deer ABD
Robert, bap. 14 08 1784 Huntly ABD

John's baptism record notes he was born in Stuartfield, a town just south of Old Deer but within the parish:
https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16&lat=57.50553&lon=-2.04546&layers=5&b=1
No witnesses were named. This is the earliest record I have found of Donalds in Old Deer.

William became a provision merchant, and m. 26 09 1840 Huntly, Helen McHardy. They lived in Deveron St. in Huntly in 1841. He died 26 06 1865 in Nelson St. in Huntly. His death record marks his father Alexander as a weaver.

I'd speculate that James (1777) is likely to be the Private James Donald, weaver born in Old Deer, who enlisted in the 92nd Gordon Highlanders aged 16 in 1794. He died 02 10 1799:
https://archive.org/details/territorialsoldi00bullrich/page/238/mode/2up?view=theater&q=donald

I also have it in my notes that a John Donald signed up to the 92nd in 1794 at Coynachie (parish of Gartly, south of Huntly), and that a lieutenant John Donald resigned from the 92nd in 1799. I can't find the original reference for that. Coynachie was part of the Gordon estate. The Duke of Gordon's Black Watch company of 1791 included a George and John Donald, brothers:
https://archive.org/details/territorialsoldi00bullrich/page/136/mode/2up
Whether either of these John Donalds is the son of Alexander Donald and Janet Largue I do not know.

The Largue family appears to be from Inverkeithny but I cannot trace a marriage record for the pair.

I have not been able to find any mention of the surname Donald in the 1696 Poll Tax records for Huntly, nor any other mention of Donalds in Huntly before 1716.

If you have the time and patience, it might be useful to go through the (recently released, free-to-view) Kirk Session records for Huntly and/or Old Deer at Scotland's People, looking for any mention of the surname Donald. If you do this, please do let me know which pages you've been through and what you've found, so that we don't have to go through them ourselves!

Best wishes,

Iain.

[LeighanneD]

Hi,  I have Donald ancestry in Kincardine.  I would like to find out more about.  Can you help?