Archibald MCKINNON

[argyllshiregirl]

Hello folks,

It sure is confusing, isn't it? Let me tackle these points one at a time.

1) There are 2 Burgs on Mull. One at Kilninian, where my McKinnons are from, although they could easily have migrated there from somewhere else. The other Burg is the one made famous by the book 'Tea With Chrissie'.

2) Archibald McKinnon, my 2x great grandfather, married twice. However, we have only ever found a marriage registration for his second wife, Christina McDougall, whom he married in 1849 on Coll. He may have had an irregular marriage with Catherine McArthur, or the records are lost, or we just have not found them yet. Catherine McArthur is listed as mother on all three children's later records - Catherine, Donald and Neil.

3) The marriage registration for my great grandparents, Neil McKinnon and Ann Paterson in 1883 is wrong! My father searched for years (prior to internet) for that marriage and was surprised at the mistake. Neil could not read nor write, nor speak English, so I suppose he never noticed when his brother/best man, Donald, was mistakenly written in the spot where the groom's name goes!

4) Neil and Donald McKinnon are definitely 2 different people. My father, now 85, grew up in Argyll and went to school on Mull for a while. He was born a month after Neil died but knew his aunts/uncles (Neil's children) as well as his gran, Ann Paterson, who lived to be 97. He also knew his cousins, the children of his uncle, Donald McKinnon. The only ones he never knew were the children of Catherine McKinnon (who married James McDougall). James died in his early 30s, as did 2 of their 4 children. All were girls and the 2 survivors moved to Glasgow, worked and were married there. We only traced them recently. So, being immersed in the family life of his McKinnons, he already possessed most of the knowledge before records confirmed it.

5) Burg, Kilninian has always been at the centre of the McKinnon family history, as far back as we know it - which isn't really very far at all. Iona has never come into it, nor have names like Rory, Allen, Thomas etc. They would surely have been mentioned by someone if they were siblings to my great grandfather??? I still think the Iona McKinnons are a red herring. I know oral history doesn't hold much value today, but if relatives with those given names were among our McKinnons, I am sure we would have heard tell of them. Also, my McKinnons were very adherent to the traditional naming pattern and those names never appear anywhere in the family. Not proof - just a strong feeling.

Does that help to explain my thinking at all? I don't think I tackled every point, but got some of them. Family history would be no fun if it was all laid out in a neat row in front of us - the puzzling, theorizing and debating is all part of this great game of detective. Thanks for your input.

Mary