Hi Cynthia
Everything after these words was typed by me before seeing your above reply. It turns out to be nonsense, but I hope you can score me an E for effort
I attach the 1841 and 1851 census returns for district 10 in North Uist for your perusal in the form of PDF files.
The ages quoted in the 1841 census cannot be trusted as they were rounded down to the nearest 5 years. The census was taken by mainland (non-Gaelic speakers in the main) persons trying to note down and translate at the same time what the Gaelic speaking inhabitants were telling them. Hence the variations in name spelling like Macinsee, probably for McKenzie etc.
As a prime example of the discrepancies in the 1841 Census open both documents and scroll to Houghary Sch 22 in 1841 and Houghgary, Sc 20 1851. This is the same family 10 years apart, 8 in the household in 1841 and 5 in 1851. Compare the reported ages for the five common names in each census to see what I mean about trusting 1841 Census ages.
I think Your Kersty (McKenzie) Macdonald (age 34) of 1851 Sc 24 is Christiy Mackenzie (age 20) Sch 20 in the 1841 Census. You can see that her father was called Rory and her mother was Atty (Annie/Ann?). The reason I say this is that I recon her father died either just before or just after she married Donald and hence their firstborn son being named after her father instead of Donald’s father. This must be so, (if my 1841 suppositions are correct about that being Christy’s family at Sch 20) as the 1851 Census has Ann Macpherson U for unmarried and living with them as a Pauper.
Their second son being Alexander would suggest that that is the name of Donald’s father. For me to trace Donald’s family in the 1841 Census would be nigh on impossible without a lot more information about him.
1) There are a lot of Donald Macdonald’s in NU.
2) He may not have been living with his own family at the time of the 1841 Census.
3) He could have been working with relatives in South Uist or Harris etc.
I know that this is not the information you were trying to find when you contacted me originally.
One other suggestion I thought of was to try the Chat Room in Rootschat. I got very good help and results from there when I was on it at the start of my Aussie search. They are very, very helpful in looking things up online as they chat with you.
Regards
Ken